Exploring a New York Rangers Trade for Minnesota Wild Forward Kirill Kaprizov

Your New York Rangers are in the height of summer, and the fanbase still wants to address the issues the forward core has had over the last few seasons. In the summer months, there's nothing else to do but have fun, so why not explore purely theoretical ideas for players that the New York Rangers might be able to go and acquire in the trade market if Chris Drury is willing to use the assets available to the organization?

An unlikely candidate for a Rangers trade but perhaps a name we could see circulating in the rumor mill in the coming months is Minnesota Wild forward Kirill Kaprizov. You might look at this and say, "You're insane if you'd ever think the Wild would move him," but you are not incorrect. Kaprizov is a star, but he's also going to see his contract expire the season after next, and he either needs a payday of enormous proportions or a trade if the Wild do not wish to lose their star for anything.

All it takes for the Wild to understand Russian wingers like to leave teams to come to New York in free agency is a look at Artemi Panarin. When the Breadman left Columbus, he left more money from other markets to play in the Concrete Jungle. Minnesota is beautiful, but some players love Broadway's bright lights more than the State of a Thousand Lakes. Kaprizov could be one of them.

Minnesota is still in transition, and they're unlikely to pursue anything more than a wild card spot this upcoming season. Players love winning, and Minnesota has yet to do that in Kaprizov's tenure in Minnesota. So, there is a world where the player might wish to move to a new pasture to see if the grass is greener on the other side. New York is desperate for a scoring forward to complete the top six, and this seems like a match made in heaven.

The problem is that the Rangers don't have a spare $9 million in cap space to dedicate to a player without shipping Jacob Trouba's deal out of town. With Trouba freely exercising his trade protection, the Rangers must find another way to accommodate the contract should a deal arise. It's unlikely, but you can never say never in hockey.

To have a line of Chris Kreider, Mika Zibanejad, and Alexis Lafreniere, followed by Artemi Panarin, Vincent Trocheck, and Kirill Kaprizov, would be one of the most dynamic forward cores in the league. It would cost the farm, and possibly part of lower Manhattan, to get this done, but just the idea would be so nice. Most of Othmann, Perreault, Schneider, and Emery would need to be in the deal to get the Wild to bite, and that will have to be topped with picks. It's not worth it, but it would be fun for the Blueshirts.