The bulk of the New York Rangers' work for this offseason has already been completed. General manager Chris Drury made some big moves to try and build a more competitive roster, which includes trading for forward Pavel Dorofeyev, and defensemen Marcus Pettersson and Sean Durzi. When looking at the roster, on paper, it does look much better as opposed to the lineup they had at the end of the season.
Even with their moves, the Rangers could still stand to add a forward before the season, especially after dealing Vincent Trocheck to the Utah Mammoth. While there isn't a star available as of this writing, that shouldn't stop the Rangers from exhausting all of their options to improve their middle six. One way they could do so is to make a trade from a position of surplus.
Maybe that player could be Braden Schneider.
The Athletic's Vince Mercogliano covered a question in a recent mailbag article about the team potentially trading Schneider for Seattle Kraken forward Shane Wright. While Mercogliano ruled out a pursuit of Wright due to Seattle's ask for a scoring forward in return, he believes that New York could explore flipping Schneider in return for a forward.
Braden Schneider could be potential trade bait for Rangers as they search for forward help
"As I wrote a couple weeks ago, I still believe the Rangers would like to leverage Schneider into forward help of their own, especially given the improved defensive depth...The market hasn’t yielded any sure-fire options to this point, so it may have to be a Wright-like reclamation project, if it happens at all," writes Mercogliano. "I’ve wondered about defense-needy teams like the Anaheim Ducks, Chicago Blackhawks and San Jose Sharks, as well as change-of-scenery candidates such as Columbus’ Kent Johnson and Calgary’s Connor Zary."
One area that Drury focused on bolstering was on defense, as evidenced by the additions of Durzi and Pettersson, while trading away Will Borgen to the Boston Bruins. With Adam Fox and Vladislav Gavrikov locked in as the top pairing defensemen on the team. With that, and Durzi and Pettersson likely being on the second pair, that leaves Schneider on the third pair.
Despite these additions, the Rangers avoided arbitration with Schneider, signing him to a one-year, $5.5 million contract for the upcoming season. On paper, that seems like a high price for a third pairing defenseman. While that seems expensive, it is a good problem to have for the Rangers, as it shows how deep they are on defense.
But, having depth does give the Rangers the luxury of trying to float Schneider around to see if a team would be willing to give up one of their forwards to for him. Mercogliano mentions the likes of the Anaheim Ducks, Chicago Blackhawks, and San Jose Sharks as potential teams that could use a defenseman like Schneider. It's important to note that these are suggestions from Mercogliano.
Perhaps the Rangers can find a proven middle six forward or one with upside on the trade block before the season begins. As of now, it doesn't look like the market is very active. That could change by training camp once injuries pick up. Perhaps then, the Rangers could find a trade partner for Schneider and in exchange, get a forward that can play significant minutes.
Until then, keping Schneider around to ensure their defense is bolstered ins't necessarily a bad idea.
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