New York Rangers: One week to go and trade speculation builds
One week to the trade deadline and the New York Rangers are yet to make a move. The action started on Sunday when the New Jersey Devils made a couple of deals.
With 24 games left in their season, the New York Rangers sit seven points out of a playoff spot. it’s not an insurmountable challenge, but with every game, the odds get smaller.
Let’s put it this way. The Philadelphia Flyers are in the final wild card spot in the Eastern Conference. If the Flyers go 11-12 in their final 23 games they will finish with 93 points. The Rangers would have to go 15-9 in their last 24 games to surpass that. But it wouldn’t be just the Flyers who would have to play badly. Carolina would have to go 11-12-1 as well.
With their loss to the Bruins, the Rangers odds of making the playoffs dropped from 17% to 13.2% according to Hockey Reference.com’s Playoff Probabilities Report. The Athletic (subscription required) does a daily playoff projection and their odds of the Rangers making the post season are much worse at only 5%.
The trades effect on the Rangers
So far there have been four trades that could be called “deadline deals.” Toronto acquired goalie Jack Stanley and Kyle Clifford from the Kings in the first deal. Pittsburgh acquired Jason Zucker from the Minnesota Wild. Sunday, the Devils traded Andy Greene to the Islanders and they sent Blake Coleman to Tampa.
The Pittsburgh and Tampa deals directly affect the Rangers as those were two teams looking for help at forward. If there were eight teams in touch with the Rangers about Chris Kreider, that number is now probably six.
Since it has been reported that Kreider will not accept a trade to a team from Canada, the number of options are limited. Two of the top possibilities remain the Boston Bruins and the St. Louis Blues.
The Bruins are loaded, but facing a challenge from Tampa they may feel the need to make a move. The Blues do expect to get Vladimir Tarasenko back from the injured list, but Kreider would be a good fit. The Blues own all of their draft picks and Jordan Kyrou has been mentioned as possible fodder for a deal.
In the mix are the Dallas Stars and the Colorado Avalanche. Dallas needs help on offense, but they don’t have second or third round draft picks this June and they may be loathe to give up a top prospect. Joe Sakic of the Avs is always a tough one to deal with , though he has the most cap space available of any contender. More on Colorado in a bit.
Probably the team that could benefit most from a Chris Kreider would be the New York Islanders. Would Jeff Gorton dare deal Kreider to a local rival? if Lou Lamoriello is willing to up the ante on return in such a deal, Gorton may be willing considering it would only be a rental.
An interesting name
Elliotte Friedman reports on TSN that the Florida Panthers are willing to listen to offers for center Vincent Trochek and they are looking for defensive help.
That immediately set off a fever of speculation on social media that a Trochek for Brady Skjei deal would help both teams. On the surface, it makes sense. Trocheck is only 26 and is two season removed from a 31 goal, 75 points season. He is also a good face off man, with a lifetime winning percentage of 51.3%, an area the Blueshirts are sorely lacking.
Trochek is signed for two years after this one at an annual cap hit of $4.75 million. The Rangers couldn’t take on that kind of salary unless it was an even cap hit swap and that’s where Brady Skjei and his $5.25 million annual hit comes in. The only consideration is that if Gorton was to offload Skjei, it would probably be in a cap clearing trade and this one definitely is not.
The common thinking is that a Trochek arrival would mean that the Rangers could give up on trying to re-sign Ryan Strome. Without Strome, the odds of their inking Tony DeAngelo to a new deal becomes much more possihle.
Back to Colorado
The Avalanche are in a solid playoff position, but are in a dogfight with St. Louis and Dallas for first place in the Central Division. They got the news Monday that top goalie Philipp Grubauer is out indefinitely with a lower body injury. His back up, rookie Pavel Francouz, has been very good this season, but the Avs could be in the hunt for more experience to fill in for Grubauer and back him up when he is healthy. Can anyone say Henrik Lundqvist?
Could a blockbuster deal with Colorado that would see them getting Chris Kreider and Henrik Lundqvist, be a possiblity? The Avalanche have the cap space to take on a Lundqvist contract, especially if the Rangers retained some salary.
The big question is whether Lundqvist would agree to such a deal. Remember this. Ray Bourque played 21 seasons for the Boston Bruins before winning the Stanley Cup in his last NHL game as a member of the Avalanche. Rob Blake played 14 years in Los Angeles before winning his Cup in Colorado. Who was a teammate of Bourque and Blake on that 2001 Cup winning Avalanche team? Current Avalanche general manager Joe Sakic.
If Lundqvist is not an option, does a Georgiev trade get back on the front burner?
TSN published their latest edition of the Trade Bait List and Chris Kreider still tops the list. Pavel Buchnevich and Tony DeAngelo are still on the list, but are not as hot as they were last week. How accurate is it?
Let’s just say that Andy Greene and Blake Coleman were not on the list last week.
You can be sure that Jeff Gorton is working the phones every day. One sure sign that trades are in the offing is if the Rangers do not dress their players on Wednesday in Chicago, Friday in Carolina or next Saturday versus San Jose. They did that last season with Mats Zuccarello and Kevin Hayes and the season before with Rick Nash. That means we may have see Chris Kreider’s last game as a Ranger at Madison Square Garden. Stay tuned.
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