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Chris Kreider

Rangers Notes: Kreider, Schneider, Edstrom

April 21, 2025 at 11:48 am CDT | by Josh Erickson 3 Comments

Rangers winger Chris Kreider ended the season dealing with a hand injury that may require offseason surgery, he told reporters during today’s end-of-season media availability (via Peter Baugh of The Athletic). That’s on top of the known back troubles that bothered him earlier this season. Kreider also said an illness he developed shortly after the holiday break led him to develop vertigo temporarily.

Kreider said he sustained the hand injury in the first game following the 4 Nations break, so that ties into his six-game absence and injured reserve stint leading into the trade deadline. All of those ailments give some context to what was a disastrous season for Kreider, who was limited to 22 goals and 30 points in 68 games after topping the 30-goal and 50-point marks in each of the previous three seasons. That drop-off led to his name landing on the trade block for much of the campaign, and David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period said last week he expects the Rangers to continue shopping him over the offseason.

Surgery to address his ailments could prove beneficial to his trade value with interested teams hoping his injuries were the principal reason for his steep offensive regression. He can block a trade to 15 teams and has two years left on a deal carrying a $6.5MM cap hit. He did still manage to score at a 27-goal pace this year while shooting slightly south of his career average, so if there are enough teams high on the 33-year-old’s rebound potential, there may not be a need for Blueshirts general manager Chris Drury to retain a portion of his salary. Kreider did end his season on a high note with a goal, three assists, and a plus-four rating in his final two outings.

On the back end, Braden Schneider has already undergone surgery to repair the torn labrum that caused him to miss the final two games of the regular season (via Baugh). Schneider said he’s been playing through the partial tear for the last two seasons but felt it impeded his physicality in 2024-25, influencing him to go under the knife. Those procedures can carry fairly lengthy recovery times, so his decision to undergo surgery as soon as the Blueshirts were eliminated from playoff contention could be the difference in determining whether he’s available when training camp begins in September.

Schneider, 23, scored a career-high 6-15–21 this year and played all 80 games up until undergoing surgery. He tied his career-high plus-nine rating and saw the most minutes of his career at 17:52 per game, seeing increased deployment after the Rangers traded ex-captain Jacob Trouba to the Ducks in early December. Now the team’s de facto No. 3 defenseman behind Adam Fox and K’Andre Miller, he’ll garner a considerable raise on his current $2.2MM AAV after he becomes eligible to sign an extension on July 1.

Depth winger Adam Edstrom said he underwent surgery to address his lower-body injury and should be fully healthy in time for training camp this fall (via Vince Z. Mercogliano of USA Today). The Rangers announced in early February that Edstrom would miss 10 to 14 weeks with a lower-body injury, and Edstrom reaffirmed today he would have been an option at some point in the postseason had New York qualified. The 6’6″ 24-year-old ended his rookie season with 5-4–9, a minus-five rating, and 27 PIMs in 51 appearances while averaging 9:16 per game.

Injury| New York Rangers Adam Edstrom| Braden Schneider| Chris Kreider

3 comments

Examining Summer Buyout Candidates

April 21, 2025 at 9:31 am CDT | by Josh Cybulski 8 Comments

The NHL salary cap is increasing dramatically this summer, but that won’t stop teams from looking to cut inflated cap hits from their salary ledgers. The buyout remains an option that NHL teams will regularly use to move out a player who has underperformed relative to their NHL salary. Teams often swap struggling players in a change-of-scenery trade, but they will use the buyout as a last resort if they can’t find a market. Let’s examine this summer’s buyout candidates, beginning with the forwards.

Andre Burakovsky cashed in on a Stanley Cup-winning year in Colorado, signing a five-year, $27.5MM deal with the Seattle Kraken in free agency, including a modified 10-team no-trade list. Since signing the agreement in July 2022, Burakovsky’s performance has declined, particularly last season, when he had just seven goals and nine assists in 49 games. The 30-year-old has bounced back this year, but still fell below the 40-point margin for the third consecutive season. He should be a trade or buyout candidate given his injury history and declining performance.

A modified no-trade clause will limit a small trade market and might force Seattle to relinquish an asset to move Burakovsky or take back another undesirable contract. A buyout would be spread over four seasons and save Seattle $5.83MM over the next two seasons total, but leave them with a $1.458MM cap hit the two seasons after (as per PuckPedia). Given the bounceback this season, it seems likely that Seattle either hangs on to Burakovsky or tries to trade him rather than eating the cost of a four-season buyout.

Chris Kreider of the New York Rangers is another forward who could be moved this summer. While a trade is likelier, it’s not an impossibility that the veteran winger could be bought out. The 33-year-old’s play has fallen off a cliff this season as he hasn’t been able to generate the same level of shot production as in previous seasons. Kreider averaged 42 goals between 2021 and 2024, but couldn’t top 25 goals this season and finished with just eight assists.

Kreider carries a 15-team no-trade clause and has two years remaining on his contract at a cap hit of $6.5MM, which will be prohibitive regarding potential trade talks. With the trade market cut in half, the Rangers might have to eat some of the remainder on Kreider’s deal. Still, given that general manager Chris Drury has gotten out from under more undesirable contracts (Barclay Goodrow and Jacob Trouba), he may find a creative way to shed Kreider’s contract without a buyout.

Under normal circumstances, Detroit center Andrew Copp would be a buyout candidate, but given that the 30-year-old will be out well into the summer after pectoral surgery, it won’t happen. Copp posted just 10 goals and 13 assists in 56 games this season, but barring a trade, he will return to Detroit next season if he is healthy enough to play by the opening of training camp.

Shifting back to defense, Ryan Graves is a prime candidate to be bought out; however, a significant caveat exists regarding moving on from the 29-year-old. The structure of Graves’ contract makes a buyout nearly impossible (as per PuckPedia) because any buyout would only move on from Graves’ salary and not include the $8MM in signing bonuses that Graves is due in each of the last four years of his contract. If Pittsburgh wants to buy Graves out, he will remain on the books for eight more years and save them just $2.58MM total over those eight years. A Graves buyout isn’t worth it for the Penguins, and the only significant cap savings would happen in the first year of the deal, the season in which the Penguins are the least likely to contend. The Penguins will have to keep Graves, trade him, or play him in the minors for the foreseeable future.

Marc-Édouard Vlasic is another veteran whose contract has become an albatross. Vlasic was once one of the top defensive defensemen in the NHL, but has fallen on hard times as he plays on a poor San Jose Sharks team. Vlasic has one year left on his contract with a $7MM cap hit and is owed $5.5MM in actual salary. He played just 24 games last year, and while he wasn’t unplayable, he’s not a good NHL defenseman anymore. Much of Vlasic’s decision will depend on what the Sharks hope to do next season; if they intend to add around their young core, they may buy out Vlasic to give themselves as much cap space as possible. If they opt to have one more year of rebuilding before adding to their lineup, they will likely burn the final year on the deal and let Vlasic walk as a UFA next summer.

A Vlasic buyout doesn’t do much to help the Sharks, saving them $2.333MM next season while adding a cap charge of $1.167MM the following year. The Sharks seem likely to keep Vlasic in San Jose for the final year and perhaps assign him to the AHL or use him as a seventh defenseman in the NHL.

Another notable defenseman who could be bought out is Jacob Trouba of the Anaheim Ducks. Trouba became a lightning rod for criticism in New York while he was a member of the Rangers, and many people didn’t think it was possible to move him and his entire $8MM cap hit. Anaheim stepped in, taking Trouba and his whole contract, and appeared excited to do so, as Ducks general manager Pat Verbeek was happy to have Trouba as a leader for a young Ducks team. Since Anaheim placed such a high value on Trouba’s intangibles, it seems unlikely that they will buy out the last year of his contract, even though he will be vastly overpaid for his play on the ice.

The top buyout candidate in net is Philipp Grubauer of the Seattle Kraken. Grubauer has been a shell of the version he was with the Colorado Avalanche and hasn’t come close to being an average NHL goalie during his time in Seattle. At the time of his signing four years ago, Grubauer had a career save percentage over .920 in seven NHL seasons, but since then, he hasn’t produced a single season over .899, and it has fallen to .875 this year. With two years remaining at $5.9MM per season, Grubauer would be incredibly difficult to trade, even in a goaltender’s market that favors the seller. His -14.6 Goals Saved Above Expected was the third worst in the NHL among all goaltenders, and his numbers in the AHL, while better, don’t indicate that he is ready to recapture his game.

Buying out the 33-year-old would save Seattle almost $4MM in cap space next year and nearly $3MM in the 2026-27 season. They would then face a charge of $1,683,333 in each of the following seasons after that (as per Puck Pedia).

The next goalie on our list is Tristan Jarry of the Pittsburgh Penguins, and while he feels like the most obvious candidate for a buyout this summer, goalies are in short supply, and anything is possible. Jarry has been better as of late, and with no actual workhorse starters available in free agency, a team may take a flier on the two-time NHL All-Star. Teams watched Los Angeles goaltender Darcy Kuemper bounce back this season after struggling last year, and with Jarry being just 29 years old, he could do the same. Jarry has the skillset to be a starting NHL goaltender, but has struggled with mistakes and letting in bad goals at inopportune times. He has also typically struggled the deeper he gets into a season, which will scare off teams with playoff aspirations.

It’s hard to imagine Jarry back in Pittsburgh next season, but they are transitioning, and many of their prospects are still a year or two away from being NHL-ready. Someone has to play goal for the Penguins, and Josh Yohe of The Athletic believes it could be Jarry going into next season. It’s hard to get a sense of what Pittsburgh will do, but none of the potential outcomes will be shocking given how the situation has played out over the last few years with the Penguins’ starting goaltender.

Photo by Kim Klement Neitzel-Imagn Images.

NHL| Pro Hockey Rumors Originals Andre Burakovsky| Andrew Copp| Chris Kreider| Jacob Trouba| Marc-Edouard Vlasic| Philipp Grubauer| Ryan Graves| Salary Cap| Tristan Jarry

8 comments

Metro Notes: Kreider, Ferschweiler, Nikishin, Pelech, Romanov

April 15, 2025 at 8:32 pm CDT | by Brennan McClain 7 Comments

Despite being mentioned in trade rumors for much of the season, New York Rangers forward Chris Kreider spent the entire year in the Big Apple. Don’t expect Kreider’s name to disappear from the trade wire as The Fourth Period reports the Rangers will again look to move their veteran sniper this offseason.

He’ll become mildly more tradeable this summer, having two years and $13MM remaining on his contract. Still, factoring in multiple injuries from this season and the declining foot speed, it’s difficult to say how much interest Kreider will generate.

The Rangers will technically have the opportunity to retain salary if they desire, but it’s likely a non-starter from their perspective. As the article in The Fourth Period mentions, the primary reason for moving Kreider is to shed salary in preparation for K’Andre Miller and William Cuylle’s new deals.

Additional happenings from the Metropolitan Division:

  • As the 2024-25 season closes, the pursuit of a new head coach is ramping up for the Philadelphia Flyers. In that vein, Kevin Kurz of The Athletic reports that Pat Ferschweiler, the head coach of the NCAA’s Western Michigan University Broncos, could be on the Flyers’ radar this summer. Ferschweiler has been the Broncos’ head coach for the last four seasons and recently guided the team to its first National Championship in program history. He’s only had one NHL opportunity in his professional coaching career, being the assistant coach for the Detroit Red Wings from 2015-16 to 2018-19.
  • The Carolina Hurricanes should only be a few days away from their top defensive prospect joining the team for their postseason run. Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reported that Alexander Nikishin has officially received approval for his work visa in the United States. That leaves an appointment at the U.S. Embassy in Istanbul on his to-do list before being allowed to play for the Hurricanes. In a perfect world, Carolina would likely want Nikishin to get an NHL game under his belt before the playoffs start, but that’s unlikely to be the case given that their regular season will conclude on April 17.
  • Although the New York Islanders failed to make the playoffs for the second time in four years, they received positive news on the injury front this morning. Stefen Rosner of The Hockey News reported that despite entering concussion protocol after leaving Sunday’s game due to a hit from New Jersey Devils forward Paul Cotter, defenseman Adam Pelech “is fine” and suited up for the Islanders tonight against the Capitals. Pelech is no stranger to injuries, having only appeared in 60 of New York’s 81 contests this season.
  • Unfortunately, not every usual defenseman for the Islanders suited up in tonight’s contest, as the team shared just before puck drop that defenseman Alexander Romanov is out of the lineup due to illness. Depth defender Scott Perunovich is filling the Romanov-sized void this evening. He’s tallied three assists in nine games for the Islanders since being acquired from the St. Louis Blues on January 27th.

Carolina Hurricanes| Injury| New York Islanders| New York Rangers| Philadelphia Flyers Adam Pelech| Alexander Nikishin| Alexander Romanov| Chris Kreider| Scott Perunovich

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Rangers Activate Chris Kreider Off Injured Reserve

March 8, 2025 at 11:39 am CDT | by Brian La Rose Leave a Comment

The Rangers were one of the more active teams around the trade deadline, moving out several veterans in recent days.  But they’re getting one back in the lineup this afternoon against Ottawa as Mollie Walker of the New York Post relays (Twitter link) that winger Chris Kreider has been activated off injured reserve.

Kreider had been dealing with an upper-body injury sustained in the first game back after the 4 Nations Face-Off break.  While his goal production has still been reasonably high, it has been a tough year for the 33-year-old overall.  Through 48 games this season, Kreider has 17 goals but just four assists, putting him on pace for the lowest full-season point total of his career.

His early-season struggles had him placed on the trade market back in late November with GM Chris Drury looking to shake up the veteran core on his roster.  The other veteran put on the block at that time (Jacob Trouba) ultimately was moved but a viable trade market never seemed to materialize for Kreider.

Kreider has two years left on his contract, one that carries a $6.5MM cap charge and a 15-team no-trade list.  A strong finish to his season could help bolster his market on the trade front and potentially help New York sneak into the postseason as despite their recent moves as a seller, they enter play today tied for the final Wild Card spot in the Eastern Conference.

Injury| New York Rangers| Transactions Chris Kreider

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Rangers To Place Chris Kreider On IR, Recall Brett Berard

March 1, 2025 at 4:52 pm CDT | by Gabriel Foley Leave a Comment

The New York Rangers have recalled rookie winger Brett Berard from the minor leagues. They’re also expected to place winger Chris Kreider on injured reserve in a corresponding move per Vince Z. Mercogliano of USA Today Sports. Kreider has missed New York’s last three games with an upper-body injury. He was a late scratch for each absence and doesn’t yet have a clear timeline to return. The Rangers can make Kreider’s IR placement retroactive to his last game on February 22nd. That will make him eligible to be activated as soon as he’s back to full health.

Berard spent six weeks on the NHL roster between November and January. He stepped into the first 19 games of his NHL career on that stint and recorded seven points, eight penalty minutes, and a minus-nine. The Rangers returned Berard to the minors in mid-January, and he’s shown the top-flight stint kicked his game into a new gear. He has 10 points, 25 penalty minutes, and a minus-five in 14 AHL games since returning to the minors.

Berard will join fellow rookie Brennan Othmann on the NHL roster. Othmann filled in Kreider’s vacancy over the last two games, with no scoring and just 18 minutes of combined ice time. Berard will give the Rangers a hotter hand to try and make up for Kreider’s lineup hole. They could also turn towards new addition Juuso Parssinen to fill a left-wing role, after acquiring him as part of a swap that sent Jimmy Vesey and Ryan Lindgren to the Colorado Avalanche. Parssinen has 11 points in 37 games this season – split between time in Nashville and Colorado. The Rangers have two wing vacancies to fill.

Kreider has turned his season around in February, recording four points in six NHL games and one goal in two games at the 4-Nations Face-Off. He’s up to 17 goals and 21 points in 48 games this season. That’s enough to tie for second on the Rangers in goals scored, leaving a glaring hole in New York’s hot-and-cold offense. Their pair of rookies, and new acquisition, will have a golden opportunity to step up in Kreider’s absence. A hot performance could go a long way towards earning routine minutes with the Rangers now down Vesey.

AHL| Injury| NHL| New York Rangers Brennan Othmann| Brett Berard| Chris Kreider

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Rangers’ Chris Kreider Day-To-Day, Brennan Othmann In

February 25, 2025 at 7:02 pm CDT | by Gabriel Foley Leave a Comment

In the moments leading up to Tuesday night’s game, the New York Rangers shared that winger Chris Kreider won’t play due to a day-to-day upper-body injury. Kreider participated in the Rangers’ morning practice and even took reps on the team’s power-play unit, making his last-minute absence a bit of a surprise. He will be replaced by top prospect Brennan Othmann, who is playing in his first NHL game of the season.

This news sets Othmann up for his season debut after a red-hot February in the minor leagues. The Rangers’ top prospect has eight points in his last 10 AHL games, bringing him up to 12 goals and 20 points in 27 games this season. That’s good enough to rank Othmann fourth on the Hartford Wolf Pack in point-per-game scoring, though he ranks sixth in total points. It’s been a year of finding his footing for Othmann. He missed two months with an upper-body injury sustained on October 19th. He’s scored in 14 of his 24 games since returning, and hasn’t gone longer than one game without a point – save for a four-game cold streak in mid-January. Othmann scored an admirable 21 goals and 49 points in 67 games as an AHL rookie last year but didn’t find any scoring through the first three NHL games of his career.

While Othmann fights for his first career point, Kreider will look to find his own footing as he works his way back to health. It’s been a historically down year for the 33-year-old winger, who has just 17 goals and 21 points in 48 games this season. But there are signs of life. He entered the 4-Nations Face-Off break with three points in his last five games – spurring a stretch of two points in eight games. He scored once in two games with Team USA at the 4-Nations tournament and notched a goal in New York’s return on February 22nd. Those gradual improvements seem to point towards the wind finally being back behind Kreider’s sails, but he’ll now face the challenge of maintaining the momentum through an injury absence.

Injury| NHL| New York Rangers Brennan Othmann| Chris Kreider

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Injury Notes: Kreider, Grzelcyk, Cooley

February 23, 2025 at 5:28 pm CDT | by Brennan McClain Leave a Comment

Before today’s game against the New York Rangers and Pittsburgh Penguins, the former announced a minor injury just before puck drop. The Rangers shared winger Chris Kreider is out with an upper-body injury although his recovery timeline is only considered day-to-day.

It’s difficult to pinpoint any specific moment for Kreider’s current injury. The veteran forward has been dealing with a recurrent back spasms issue for much of the regular season, while he could also be one of the several players to succumb to a minor injury throughout the 4 Nations Face-Off tournament.

Still, despite the specifics of the injury, Kreider did participate in the Rangers’ first game back from the tournament. Despite the team being completely outclassed by the Buffalo Sabres, Kreider scored one goal over 15 minutes in yesterday’s contest joining Mika Zibanejad as the only New York forward to not have a negative rating.

Other injury notes:

  • Hopping over to the other side of today’s Metropolitan Division tilt, the Penguins announced defenseman Matt Grzelcyk won’t return to the game due to an upper-body injury. The pending unrestricted free agent only skated in five minutes of today’s action before being hit from behind by Ranger forward Matt Rempe. Rempe was originally reprimanded with a five-minute major only to be downgraded to a two-minute minor call.
  • The Utah Hockey Club could be short-handed when they play their first home game in 19 days tonight. According to Brogan Houston of Deseret News Sports, Utah forward Logan Cooley is a game-time decision for this evening’s event. Cooley is confirmed to be dealing with a lower-body issue but it’s not severe enough to warrant a concrete absence from the lineup. The sophomore center is only one point away from tying his total production from last year scoring 15 goals and 43 points in 50 games.

Injury| New York Rangers| Pittsburgh Penguins| Utah Mammoth Chris Kreider| Logan Cooley| Matt Grzelcyk| Matt Rempe

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Rangers Activate Chris Kreider, Reassign Bo Groulx

January 14, 2025 at 3:59 pm CDT | by Gabriel Foley Leave a Comment

The New York Rangers have activated winger Chris Kreider off of injured reserve and reassigned Benoit-Olivier Groulx to the AHL Hartford Wolf Pack, per Mollie Walker of the New York Post. Kreider has missed the Rangers’ last four games with an upper-body injury. He had three points in three games prior to his injury – the longest scoring streak of Kreider’s season.

It’s been a year to forget for Kreider. He has just 13 goals and 15 points in 34 games on the year, putting him on pace for a career-low 36 points across a full season. He ranks ninth on the team in scoring, despite receiving the fifth-most minutes, on average, of any Rangers forward. Even worse, Rangers head coach Peter Laviolette chose to healthy scratch Kreider in their match against Tampa Bay on December 23rd, their last game before the holiday break. New York still lost that match 5-0, and didn’t rebound much when Kreider stepped back into the lineup. But the team has found some footing while he’s been on the shelf. They’re 3-1-0 in their last four games, already reaching four wins in January – a mark the team fell short of in December.

Filip Chytil also returned to full practices on Monday and Tuesday, per Walker, and could soon return from his own upper-body injury. If he does, Chytil and Kreider will likely both step into roles on New York’s third-line and second power-play unit. That will likely bump Jonny Brodzinski and Jimmy Vesey back out of the lineup. Brodzinski contributed a goal and an assist while serving as Kreider’s relief, while Vesey hasn’t scored since December 22nd. Also notable, Kreider and Chytil could line up next to Arthur Kaliyev at even strength. The Rangers claimed the 2019 33rd-overall pick off of waivers from Los Angeles last week. He’s since played in two games with his new club, recording three shots on net and three hits but so far no scoring. While a lineup shakeup is far from ideal for a Rangers team that seemed to finally be in a groove, the pair of returnees could be the piece that helps Kaliyev find his footing in New York.

Meanwhile, Groulx will return to the minors still waiting for his first game in the Rangers lineup. Groulx signed a one-year, two-way, league-minimum contract with New York this summer and received his first call-up of the season on January 10th. While he didn’t receive any NHL ice time, Groulx has been surprisingly productive in the minors – ranked second on the Wolf Pack in scoring with 11 goals and 29 points in 32 games. That type of production could soon make him an invaluable piece of New York’s bottom-six, and give Groulx a chance for a better NHL showing after posting just two points in 45 games with Anaheim last season.

AHL| Injury| NHL| New York Rangers| Transactions Benoit-Olivier Groulx| Chris Kreider

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Rangers Place Chris Kreider On Injured Reserve

January 7, 2025 at 9:49 am CDT | by Josh Erickson 6 Comments

11:30 a.m.: Rempe has officially been added back to the roster today, per a team announcement.

9:49 a.m.: The Rangers placed left-winger Chris Kreider on injured reserve Tuesday, reports Larry Brooks of the New York Post. The move is retroactive to his last appearance on Saturday against the Capitals. It rules him out for their next three contests with an upper-body injury, including tonight’s game against the Stars and Thursday’s rivalry matchup with the Devils. They now have an open roster spot, which, as Brooks notes, could go to winger Matt Rempe after he was sent down yesterday to make room for waiver claim Arthur Kaliyev.

As Colin Stephenson of Newsday points out, doing so would mean Rempe serves the final game of his eight-game suspension for elbowing Stars defenseman Miro Heiskanen today. He would then be available to re-enter the lineup for the New Jersey game. 

Kreider’s upper-body issue may be recurring, partially explaining why the 6’3″ winger’s point production has fallen off a cliff this season. He also missed three games with a UBI in November.

It is unfortunate timing for the 33-year-old, who was on a season-high three-game point streak before exiting the lineup. After scoring the first goal of the game in a 7-4 loss to Washington, he sat out the following day’s 6-2 win over the Blackhawks.

Despite still seeing consistent top-six usage, Kreider has 15 points in 34 games this year – just 0.44 per game. That would be the lowest rate of his 13-year career aside from a 23-game trial in the 2012-13 campaign, his first taste of NHL regular-season hockey.

13 of those 15 points are goals, still putting him on pace for a strong 31 goals if he played a full 82 games. Still, that would check out as his worst total since the 2020-21 season, notwithstanding his paltry two helpers on the year.

Before his injury, Kreider’s struggling second line, including Mika Zibanejad and Reilly Smith, was beginning to turn things around. The latter two also have active three-game point streaks. According to MoneyPuck, the trio has now controlled 51.2% of expected goals on the year after sitting below 50% through most of the early going.

Even through his struggles and trade rumors this season, Kreider still ranks second on the Blueshirts in goals behind Artemi Panarin’s 16 in 37 games. Generating offense has been an issue overall for the Rangers, who are 21st in the league at 2.90 goals per game. That’s down sharply from last year’s 3.39 mark, which placed them seventh in the league amid a Presidents’ Trophy-winning season.

Kreider will be eligible to return on Jan. 14 against the Avalanche if his health allows.

New York Rangers| Transactions Chris Kreider| Matt Rempe

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Latest On The New York Rangers

December 30, 2024 at 9:11 pm CDT | by Josh Cybulski 60 Comments

Elliotte Friedman commented today on the Sunday column from Larry Brooks of the New York Post. In the column, Brooks writes that the Rangers players have quit on just about everyone, including their head coach Peter Laviolette. As Friedman points out, the Rangers collapse has been historic after the team won the President’s Trophy and went to the Eastern Conference Finals just last season. In his column, Brooks writes that the Rangers collapse will eventually result in Laviolette losing his job, and another loss tonight to Florida certainly won’t help things.

Friedman comments that Brooks is incredibly plugged into the Rangers organization and feels that this column carries a ton of weight. He adds that Laviolette knows that hockey is results-driven, and with the Rangers losing 15 of their last 19 games, the results have been very poor.

The Rangers haven’t been shy about making hard choices in recent years, leveraging waivers as a means of sidestepping no-trade clauses, and moving on from long-time veterans. The Rangers just underwent a dramatic rebuild prior to the pandemic, and now, at a time when they should be competing for the Stanley Cup, they are amid their season unravelling. It is anyone’s guess as to what the Rangers will do next and there could be many more surprises in store in New York City.

General manager Chris Drury has already traded his captain, he’s traded a recent second overall pick, he’s called around the league and let teams know that most of their roster is available (including long-time veteran Chris Kreider). He hasn’t been shy about calling players out, or doing what he thinks is best to improve the team.

Now, with the team free-falling, Drury has some hard choices to make. He is unlikely to overhaul the roster into a contender this season, and given that the Rangers just exited a rebuild, it’s unlikely that the franchise has the appetite to endure another one. But, with each passing day, some sort of action will need to occur, and it seems likely (at least according to Brooks) that it will start with Laviolette.

New York Rangers| Peter Laviolette Chris Kreider

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Atlantic Notes: Stutzle, Byram, Hughes, Protz

Sabres Looking To Add Front Office Veteran

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