How the 2018 Rick Nash trade has reshaped the Rangers blueline

NEW YORK, NY - JANUARY 16: Rick Nash #61 of the New York Rangers attempts to get past Shayne Gostisbehere #53 of the Philadelphia Flyers at Madison Square Garden on January 16, 2018 in New York City. The Rangers defeated the Flyers 5-1. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images) — NEW YORK, NY – JANUARY 16: Rick Nash #61 of the New York Rangers attempts to get past Shayne Gostisbehere #53 of the Philadelphia Flyers at Madison Square Garden on January 16, 2018, in New York City. The Rangers defeated the Flyers 5-1. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)

When we think back to the Rick Nash trade with Boston all those years ago, a lot of people think of how that helped the Rangers land defenseman, Ryan Lindgren. While it is true that the Rangers landed the prospect from the Bruins in that deal, there’s more than just that one piece involved here. There’s actually a second piece of the current Rangers backend that the Blueshirts got directly out of this trade.

Let’s start with Ryan Lindgren. He’s become part of the heart and soul of this roster. His absence echos through the lineup and when he is at his best, there are very few players in the league that can match what the Burnsville, Minnesota native brings night in and night out. One of the gutsiest and bravest players in the sport, there is a reason he was deemed the Ranger who goes above and beyond most by the fans as the Steven McDonald award winner.

Remember how I mentioned Lindgren wasn’t the only piece on the Rangers blueline that originates in this deal? It’s true. New York was savvy with its assets and was able to use some of the remaining pieces from this deal to get another major part of the current Blueshirts’ backend. In order to understand how we need to go back and look at the original trade.

So, you can see that the Rangers got Matt Beleskey and Ryan Spooner who are not in the NHL anymore so they cannot be the big pieces on the back end. So you’re looking at the 2018 1st rounder I am wondering what became of that pick. Well, I can tell you it was used to select defenseman Jonathan Bernard-Docker. Many of you may recognize him as a prospect in the Ottawa Senators farm system.

So how did he get there? Well, the Rangers traded up with the Senators. They took a defenseman higher up the draft. That player? K’Andre Miller. With Miller’s emergence this year, you can trace two of the Rangers’ top four, and the entirety of the left side of their top four on the back end to this deal. We can talk about Nash’s tenure as a Ranger, but the trade to Boston really helped the Rangers create this monstrous back end.

There is a lot more to this trade tree. If you would like me to start from the beginning and do a trade tree on Nash’s original arrival from Columbus, let me know in the comments. I’ll do a full dive and you can see how the Rangers are benefitting still from the original trade that brought Nash to the Big Apple. But until then, we’ve got some Blueshirts hockey to enjoy.