Are the Rangers ready to trade Brady Skjei

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The struggles of Brady Skjei continued last night in Calgary. After the Rangers quickly scored 2 power play goals to knot the game up, Brady Skjei committed his 42nd turnover of the season and Calgary went up 3-2. David Quinn’s frustration level reached a boiling point in the 3rd period after Skjei took a high sticking penalty and was benched from that point on.

The Left Side Defense

New York has one of the deepest prospect pools in the NHL. That is evident when looking at defensemen who play the left side. Currently on the roster two 21 year olds in Ryan Lindgren and Libor Hajek have impressed. Waiting is blue chip prospect K’Andre Miller who should push for a spot next season at camp. Throw in prospects Yegor Rykov, Tarmo Reunanen, and Zac Jones and the Rangers are set on the left side for years to come.

That means Gorton has already replaced Marc Staal when his contract is up at the end of next season. What this could also mean as the team falls further and further from the last wild card spot is the expendability of Brady Skjei.

Trading Brady

Skjei is only 25 years old and has 17 points in 39 games. Offensively his numbers are decent. For his career, he has 22 goals and 106 points in 286 regular season games. Couple all this with a nice cost controlled contract until 2024 at an AAV of only $5.25M and you can see struggles aside, teams would love to have him. However the window to trade him without restriction ends after next season when his modified no trade clause kicks in.

The Rangers are aware of all of this and will at least explore trading him at the trade deadline if both Hajek and Lindgren are healthy. If Rykov is ready to jump in by the deadline, it could help move matters along. Of course the best bet is to wait until June and see if they could package Skjei and Andersson for a top 5 pick in the 2020 draft which is considered very strong.

Hey, if Gorton is feeling lucky he could package those same two to a team with a lottery pick before the drawing and move in to the top 3 again. Listen, it’s the lottery so you never know. What’s becoming evident is Skjei could be playing his way off Broadway.

By Anthony Scultore

Anthony Scultore has been covering the New York Rangers and the NHL since 2014. His work also appears at... More about Anthony Scultore

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