As the trade deadline approaches, the New York Rangers need to decide if they will be buyers or sellers. In the third year of their rebuild, the Rangers find themselves in sixth place, six points out of playoff position. The team is playing far better defensively, but its offense has been sputtering along. Though, it may not feel that way after a 9-0 win with Mika Zibanejad scoring six points in the second period, including a natural hat trick.
The Seattle Kraken expansion draft looms over the New York Rangers trade deadline decisions.
Bob McKenzie, during the Rangers’ last NBC broadcast stated that believes that the Rangers will be neither. Instead it is his belief that the Rangers will make “hockey” trades, if any such trade were to be available. In short this means the team will look to improve itself, but they will not be looking to specifically attain assets, nor will they ship out veteran players or expiring contracts.
Each team, with the exception of the Las Vegas Golden Knights, will lose one player to the Kraken. Each team will be required to submit a list of ‘protected’ players it is withholding from the draft, which leaves the rest of the team’s eligible players ‘exposed’ to be taken by the Kraken.
When adding players at the trade deadline, the expansion draft may not be a consideration for a contenders. Teams looking to contend for the cup would more likely be interested in adding a short term rental player on an expiring contract. However, a team like the New York Rangers are not in a position to be looking to add a rental player, but would instead want to add a player for the foreseeable future. Doing so now could easily disrupt which players the team expects to protect and/or expose.