10 key trades that helped New York Rangers win 1994 Stanley Cup

One of the toughest players and most feared fighters in the NHL, Joe Kocur was traded to the Rangers along with defenseman Per Djoos by the Detroit Red Wings for forward Kevin Miller, and defensemen Dennis Vial and Jim Cummins before the 1991 trade deadline. Kocur was third on the Rangers with 129 penalty minutes and played in 20 postseason games in 1993-94.

The Rangers acquired Glenn Healy from the Tampa Bay Lightning for a third-round pick in the 1993 NHL Draft after the Lightning selected the goalie in the Expansion Draft from the New York Islanders. Healy was a valuable No. 2 goalie behind Mike Richter in 1993-94 after leading the Islanders to the Eastern Conference Final the previous season. He started only 17 games, but replaced Richter in 12 other games, when coach Mike Keenan pulled his starter.

The Rangers acquired Glenn Anderson from the Toronto Maple Leafs right before the trade deadline in 1994 along with a fourth-round draft pick for Mike Gartner, in a stunning deal involving two future Hall-of-Fame forwards. Anderson had already helped the Edmonton Oilers win the Stanley Cup five times and Gartner had never won a championship, leading to the trade. Anderson had four goals in 12 regular-season games and three in the playoffs, including two in the Stanley Cup Final, and played a gritty style favored by coach Mike Keenan in the postseason.

Before the 1993 trade deadline, the Rangers acquired pesky Esa Tikkanen from the Edmonton Oilers for center Doug Weight. It was a hefty price to pay, but Tikkanen, a four-time Cup winner at that point, made it pay off in 1993-94. The agitating forward from Finland tied for sixth on the Rangers with 22 goals that season and was seventh with 54 points. He played in all 23 playoff games.

Acquired from the Edmonton Oilers for speedy center Todd Marchant, Craig MacTavish brought three Stanley Cup championship rings with him to New York. An incredibly valuable defensive center, MacTavish won the final face-off in the Rangers’ zone in Game 7 of the Final to secure the Stanley Cup in 1994.

The Rangers acquired Kevin Lowe from the Edmonton Oilers for right wing Roman Oksiuta and a third-round pick in the 1993 NHL Draft. A five-time Stanley Cup champion with the Oilers, Lowe was a steadying complement on a defense pairing with Sergei Zubov in New York and a respected locker-room leader. Though he had a separated shoulder, Lowe missed only one game in the 1994 playoffs.

At coach Mike Keenan’s urging, the Rangers traded budding superstar Tony Amonte, who already had a pair of 30-goal seasons on his resume, to the Chicago Blackhawks for a pair of grinding forwards, Stephane Matteau and Brian Noonan. Keenan had coached them in his previous stop in Chicago and was rewarded in the 1994 playoffs when Matteau famously scored a pair of double-overtime goals, including the deciding tally in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Final to eliminate the New Jersey Devils. Noonan had 11 points in 22 playoffs games and Matteau scored six goals in 23 postseason contests.

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With the flurry of trades the Rangers made on deadline day, perhaps overlooked was a deal they made earlier in the season when they acquired forwards Steve Larmer and Nick Kypreos and defenseman prospect Barry Richter from the Hartford Whalers for long-time Rangers defenseman James Patrick and popular center Darren Turcotte. Among the best two-way forwards of his time, and considered one of the smartest, Larmer was a major reason why the Rangers ended their 54-year Cup drought. Larmer scored 21 goals in the regular season and another nine in in the playoffs. Kypreos, a rugged forward who was in and out of the lineup, played in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final against the Vancouver Canucks.

The most important trade in Rangers history took place at the start of the 1991-92 season when general manager Neil Smith landed Messier — “The Messiah” — and important future considerations that turned into defenseman Jeff Beukeboom from the Oilers for forwards Bernie Nicholls, Steven Rice and Louie DeBrusk and defenseman David Shaw. Messier helped change the Rangers’ culture and led them to the Presidents’ Trophy twice, in 1991-92 and 1993-94. His combination of on-ice dominance and unparalleled leadership transformed an entire organization and was the most important piece to the 1994 championship puzzle. His famous “guarantee” before Game 6 of the conference final against the Devils, with the Rangers trailing 3 games to 2 and then backing it up with a natural hat trick to ensure New York’s season would continue is the stuff of legend.