Up: Ryan Strome
As we’ve said before here on Blue Line Station, the New York Rangers show that they’ve already won the Ryan Strome-Ryan Spooner trade with the Edmonton Oilers a bit more every day. Strome had a huge week, continuing to break out of his shell and excel offensively.
Through 53 games with the Rangers so far this season, he has 24 points, made up of 12 goals and 12 assists. He is scoring at a 0.45 point per game pace, as opposed to the approximately 0.11 point per game pace he had been playing at in Edmonton to start the year. At that pace, he will have his best offensive season since his sophomore year (2014-15) with the Islanders.
This week specifically, he’s had four points in his last five games (two goals and two assists). He even had a huge multi-point game against New Jersey, with two goals and an assist.
This furthers his recent hot streak as well, earning nine points (five goals and four assists) in his last 12 games and 13 points (six goals and seven assists) in his last 16 games. The Rangers recognized this accomplishment on Twitter earlier in the week.
Ryan Strome has tallied four points (two goals, two assists) in the last four games, nine points (five goals, four assists) in the last 12 games, and 13 points (six goals, seven assists) in the last 17 games. #NYR
— NY Rangers PR (@NYR_PR) March 16, 2019
In a rare turn of events, a “change of scenery” trade finally worked; Strome is quickly finding a niche in New York, and he’s not the only one benefitting from it. When Kevin Hayes and Mats Zuccarello were traded at last month’s NHL Trade Deadline, many Rangers’ fans worried that the team’s scoring would struggle.
While it has, obviously, with New York being outscored 19-10 this past week, the absence of former offensive juggernauts has allowed some new faces to step up. Rather than being aided by someone like Zuccarello, Mika Zibanejad is now setting up some of his plays by passing to Strome.
The 25-year-old is also becoming what some would call a “young veteran”, recording helpers on goals by potential future Rangers’ regulars like Libor Hajek and Neal Pionk. While it looks good from a leadership perspective and it’s helping some prospects cases, this is also a huge personal win for Strome.
When he was traded from the New York Islanders to the Oilers in a one-for-one deal in exchange for Jordan Eberle, no one thought he would ever recover. The trade was extremely one-sided, and he seemed to suffer a bit from it, not to mention having to enter the mess that’s currently taking the ice in Edmonton.
The trade to the Rangers helped Strome regain his footing a bit and re-establish himself as a solid middle-six player with more NHL experience than you’d think. I’d expect to see him playing on Broadway for a long time to come.