The New York Rangers have announced that they have acquired Lucas Edmonds from the Tampa Bay Lightning for Ryder Korczak. It's a minor league trade between the two affiliates, but the Rangers farm system is picking up a 23-year-old North Bay, Ontario native from the Lightning. We'll see how this develops later when the Hartford Wolf Pack plays, but the Pack needed to add if the Rangers are going to empty their farm for an NHL player.
Edmonds was a third-round pick in the 2022 NHL entry draft, coming off a 113-point season with the Kingston Fronteacs in the OHL before joining the Syracuse Crunch of the AHL. He's struggled to produce at the same rate as he did in the OHL. If he can find a way to develop and produce at the same level he was scoring at in Canadian juniors, he could get a shot with the NHL team at some point, but this looks like a long time away right now.
As for Ryder Korczak, the WHL product has been in the AHL for a long time. In his second entire AHL season this year, Korczak has scored three goals and eight assists for 11 points in 35 games. It's not been the career he's wanted in the AHL, but he's shown signs of being able to play at a higher level, especially in comparison to Edmonds.
New York is likely making this deal to do right by the player. Korczak was unlikely to get a look at the NHL level in New York due to the towering fourth line and the abundance of skilled guys ahead of him, like Adam Sykora, Brett Berard, and Brennan Othmann. We'll see how this trade looks in a few years, but it's unlikely to move the needle in either direction for these two franchises.