New York Rangers: Can Adam McQuaid still be trade bait?

The New York Rangers’ front office traded for Adam McQuaid in September to sure up the defense with the hope that he could also serve as trade bait come February.

Anytime a team brings in a player with only one year remaining on their contract, it means one of two things. Either the team is a contender and adding a short-term piece to try and get across the finish line or it’s a stop gap to fill in a spot for just that one year. In the case of the New York Rangers and Adam McQuaid, it was about serving as a stop gap with some snarl.

For the past several years, the Rangers were a soft team that did not stand up for itself. The logic being that if the other team engages in after the whistle chicanery, they would be the ones to draw penalties, not the Ranger player. While this does make sense to some degree, there needs to some kind of line that cannot be crossed.

It’s no secret that McQuaid is a tough customer and willing to defend his teammates when things go down. This is the primary reason that the front office targeted a veteran defenseman that is slightly below average in terms of conventional standards. With the Boston Bruins, McQuaid played brutally tough minutes and faired moderately well.

However, his tenure with the Rangers thus far has not been pretty. The veteran defenseman is coming off of major leg injury (fractured fibula)  last season and still looks a step slow. In addition to his physical attributes, the defenseman has yet to gell with his main defensive partner, Brady Skjei.

The argument

Simply put, there will always be a market for cheap middle or bottom pairing defenseman come deadline time. There won’t be an insane demand for a spare part like McQuaid, but at least in theory, there should be demand. Depending on how serious the injury the defenseman suffered was, he should return in a few days.

Even playing below McQuaid’s usual level, the defenseman should garner interest from some team. In addition to his gnarly style, he’s also right-handed, which is a major plus to due the dearth of that handedness in the NHL.

If Nick Holden was able to get a third-round pick at the trade deadline last year, Jeff Gorton, the Rangers’ G.M., should be able to do the same with McQuaid. While the former Bruin doesn’t post the same type of offensive numbers as Holden, he fills a box in on the contending team checklist.

Veteran defenseman with a low upside but a high floor that won’t hamstring the team if he’s caught in the defensive zone for an extended period of time. There will be better alternatives out on the market, but at the low price of a third or fourth round pick, McQuaid is an easy trade target.

A trade for McQuaid is the type of low-risk move that NHL G.M.s love to make because they can point to it for both their owner and fan base to show that they did something to try and sure up the roster for the postseason without having to give up too much.

It’s the same exact reason that someone inevitably trades for Tomas Vanek every single deadline. Low-risk players that can eat minutes and contribute anything to the mix keep G.M.s in their office. The idea being that a G.M. wants to keep their job as long as possible and needs reference points.

As for the Rangers’ side of things, the team is still clearly rebuilding and another third-round pick in the mix can’t hurt. While only one third-round pick has reached the NHL with New York (Pavel Buchnevich) these are the types of moves that a team still building up needs to make.

To sure things up, McQuaid needs to stay healthy between now and February and try to get his legs under him. It doesn’t help that Skjei is still trying to find his own way himself, but in theory, the two should be a serviceable defensive pair in the interim.