New York Rangers: Five worst trade deadline deals of the Lundqvist era

4. Eric Staal for Aleksi Saarela and picks

Despite the overall failure of the trade, I’ll leave this one as number four on this list because it should have had a better outcome.

There was a time when a trade for Eric Staal was a no-brainer for just about any franchise in the NHL. Unfortunately for the Rangers, they chose one of the worse times to take a flier on the Stanley Cup winning center.

Once again, the lineup mishandlings of Alain Vigneault ruined what should have been a promising acquisition for New York. The Rangers were in desperate need of defense, not offense, and had three legitimate centers in Derick Brassard, Derek Stepan, and Kevin Hayes. As a result, Staal found it hard to come across minutes and opportunities in the Rangers’ forward rotation.

This was one of the first true sign of poor asset management in the Rangers’ front office. Instead of focusing on the issues at hand on their roster, they chose to once again make a flashy trade. In the process, they lost two early-round draft picks and a quality prospect playing in a men’s league in Sweden.