New York Rangers trade rumors: The plot thickens in Colorado

As the NHL inches closer and closer to the trade deadline on February 25th, the rumor mill will swirl. The latest instance was the New York Rangers having a pair of scouts at Colorado Avalanche games leading up to the all-star game bye week.

At face value, an NHL team’s season should always be about the product on the ice. However, as a rebuilding team, the New York Rangers have more to worry about than just what happens on the ice at Madison Square Garden. Success this year would actually be to the detriment of the future of the organization.

Last year, the front office made a series of trades to acquire assets in hopes of improving the prospect pool. In the grand scheme of things, prospects are the life’s blood of an NHL organization. Without young cost controlled players to integrate into a roster, a team ages out and becomes over the hill overnight.

The Rangers did not get to that point right away, but the front office avoided a bitter downfall with moves last year. Coming into the 2018-2019 season, the expectation was that the team would continue this transition through more trades. There was some concern that if the Rangers were competitive, that this may not come to fruition.

However, this is not the case as the Rangers’ front office quelled those concerns recently.

In terms of tangible proof for action, teams are typically quiet as to not tip their hand to the rest of the league. With 30 other general managers in direct competition, every bit of leverage is valuable. That is a major concern based on the position that the Rangers are in. Since other teams know that New York has to make trades, it can put the team into a corner.

The Avalanche of a move?

In terms of practical rumors, things are light. However, the Rangers sent scouts to Colorado Avalanche games multiple times during the month of January. Colorado is right in the mix for a postseason birth, so the Rangers’ front office having its director of professional scouting watching Avalanche games is curious.

Colorado would likely not want to give up any roster players in hopes of making a deep postseason run. This may just be a way to get someone in the room with Colorado’s executives to talk about scouting.

For the longest time, the Avalanche’s biggest trade chip was and still is veteran puck-moving defenseman Tyson Barrie. In terms of the Rangers’ rebuild, Barrie would not make a ton of sense. The soon to be 28-year-old defenseman is due to be a free agent in the summer of 2019-2020 when his current contract at $5.5 million per year expires.

There is a scenario in which the Rangers could acquire Barrie only to subsequently flip him. In terms of practical value, an expiring contract that is below market value on a quality player is always going to fetch a minimum value on the open market. Expiring contracts for a good player can always fetch a first round pick from a contending team.

It’s just a matter of what general manager Jeff Gorton thinks makes the most sense to extract value. If he swaps Kevin Hayes for Barrie and a draft pick then moves Barrie later on, it may prove to garner a larger return than Hayes on his own.

This is where a general manager has to really earn their keep. Navigating a rebuild can develop into a never-ending cycle of self-defeat. For this rebuild to work, Gorton and crew need to maximize return value on trades.

Unfortunately, there probably is not a scenario in which the Rangers can acquire the Senators pick that Colorado owns from the Matt Duchene trade.