All the rumors in the NHL world run back to the New York Rangers. With teams calling about players like Jacob Trouba, Chris Kreider, and Kaapo Kakko, Chris Drury is active behind the scenes, trying to fix this roster's problems. Teams are calling the Rangers left and right to try to find a deal, but Sportsnet insider Elliotte Friedman thinks a specific team is calling them right now to improve their roster.
Despite being very quiet with what they say publically, the Ottawa Senators seem to be a team in repeated contact with the New York Rangers, leading to why? Many Rangers fans will get their hopes up about acquiring Senators captain Brady Tkachuk, but I suspect that is a pipedream. Instead, I suspect the Senators are inquiring about the availability of some of the Rangers defensemen. Given the Senators' cap situation, part of me wonders if this is a team interested in Ryan Lindgren.
With Artem Zub currently on LTIR, the Senators are in LTIR relief. This means the Canadian organization isn't accruing cap space, but it has enough to make a potential Lindgren deal work if the Rangers retain. Lindgren makes $4 million until the end of the season, and with the Rangers imploding, questions are being asked regarding what direction the Blueshirts should be heading in. If they choose to sell, Lindgren moving makes sense.
As an upgrade over Travis Hamonic, the Senators would be better even with Lindgren playing his offside. Trouba would be a dream to offload to Ottawa, but that would mean the Senators taking on his contract, Trouba waiving, and then making the cap work, all of which is unrealistic. Schneider and Fox aren't going anywhere, you wouldn't think, and Lindgren can ply his offside, so that's the logical answer for who the Senators are looking at.
I could also see a world where the Senators inquire about a Joshua Norris trade for someone like Mika Zibanejad. When Zibanejad started his career in Ottawa, he wasn't the player he had become. Since then, the Senators have endured a painful rebuild, and players like Norris have issues staying on the ice. Offloading an injury-riddled player signed long-term for someone like Zibanejad, even if Mika is declining, could be an interesting deal.
New York would get a young center to replace an aging veteran, and Ottawa would get a center that consistently stays on the ice to partner with an already dangerous core. New York gets younger, and Ottawa gets better logic. It also works from a cap space standpoint, depending on how Drury and Senator General Manager Steve Staios want to approach negotiations.
Are there other minor pieces that could be discussed? Yes, but these two big names will most likely be addressed. While this is just speculation, discussing what might happen with this organization is always fun. We'll see what happens between now and the trade deadline, but it is a conversation we'll revisit until something bears fruit. These two teams have a history of trading and aren't competing directly to this point. We'll see what comes of this.