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New York Rangers: To trade or not to trade

By Andrew Steele-Davis

NEW YORK, NY - JANUARY 19: Chris Kreider #20 of the New York Rangers skates with the puck against Seth Jones #3 of the Columbus Blue Jackets at Madison Square Garden on January 19, 2020 in New York City. (Photo by Jared Silber/NHLI via Getty Images)
NEW YORK, NY - JANUARY 19: Chris Kreider #20 of the New York Rangers skates with the puck against Seth Jones #3 of the Columbus Blue Jackets at Madison Square Garden on January 19, 2020 in New York City. (Photo by Jared Silber/NHLI via Getty Images) /
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NEW YORK, NY – FEBRUARY 09: Tony DeAngelo #77 and Marc Staal #18 of the New York Rangers celebrate after a goal in the third period against the Los Angeles Kings at Madison Square Garden on February 9, 2020 in New York City. (Photo by Jared Silber/NHLI via Getty Images)
NEW YORK, NY – FEBRUARY 09: Tony DeAngelo #77 and Marc Staal #18 of the New York Rangers celebrate after a goal in the third period against the Los Angeles Kings at Madison Square Garden on February 9, 2020 in New York City. (Photo by Jared Silber/NHLI via Getty Images) /

We’re rapidly approaching the Trade Deadline and it is going to be crunch time for the New York Rangers.

As we get closer to Feb. 24, the speculation will continue to rage over what the New York Rangers will decide to do with a number of their assets.

Chris Kreider is of course at the heart of a lot of that speculation, as is Henrik Lundqvist with reports suggesting that the franchise goaltender could be persuaded to waive his no-trade clause.

Ryan Strome, Tony DeAngelo, Jesper Fast, Alexandar Georgiev and maybe even Pavel Buchnevich will all need their futures decided too, so it promises to be an intriguing if not a bonkers few weeks.

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And, it is fair to suggest that no one really knows what direction President John Davidson and General Manager Jeff Gorton will head in.

After all, it isn’t like the Blueshirts have a treasure chest of cap space at their disposal, wouldn’t that be nice, so they will need to get both creative and ruthless in order to achieve what they want to.

Whatever happens, the next few weeks will shape the short-term future of this storied franchise, and maybe even the long-term future.

And the period between now and Feb. 24 will also tell us a lot about how far away this team really is from morphing into a legitimate contender.

It is going to be a real game of dominoes for the Rangers and there will be some tough goodbyes, there is no getting away from that.

There will also be plenty of twists and turns along the way and I don’t envy the bevy of tough decisions awaiting Gorton and Davidson.

However, in saying that, I decided to put myself in the shoes of the front office by going through the players I believe will be on the trading block and deciding if they will be traded or not.

Let’s start with the player I believe is going to generate the most headlines and buzz over the next few weeks…

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