Rangers trade rumors, lineup changes after extended stretch of mediocre play
It’s not quite a crisis yet. But New York Rangers management and their coaches clearly aren’t happy with an extended stretch of indifferent, mediocre play, and could be tiring of doing nothing about it.
NHL Insider Elliotte Friedman dropped a rumor bomb Monday morning, stating that the Rangers are “interested in making moves and shaking up their roster.” He said two players they’d consider moving are forward Chris Kreider and captain Jacob Trouba.
Both Kreider and Trouba have 15-team no-trade clauses in their contracts. Kreider has two seasons past this one remaining on his deal that carries a $6.5 million average annual value. He’ll be 36 when the contract expires.
The veteran forward is third all-time in Rangers history with 313 goals and is four away from passing Camille Henry (116) for first in power-play goals.
This season, Kreider is second on the Rangers with nine goals, though he doesn’t have a single assist yet. He won’t play Monday when the Rangers host the St. Louis Blues because of an upper-body injury.
Trouba, whom the Rangers attempted to trade last offseason, has one season remaining on his contract, which carries an $8 million salary cap hit. The other complication moving him is that his wife is completing her medical residency in New York, and Trouba reportedly blocked a trade during the offseason because he wanted to keep his family in place this season because of his wife’s career.
Though Kreider and Trouba are the names swirling in the trade rumors, you’d have to think the Rangers would consider trading Ryan Lindgren — in his last season before becoming an unrestricted free agent — and possibly even K’Andre Miller, who’s struggled this season ahead of an expected big pay raise as an RFA with arbitration rights next summer.
Artemi Panarin, Mika Zibanejad and Vincent Trocheck each has a no-move clause in his contract.
Emily Kaplan of ESPN reported on X, formerly Twitter, “Followed up with calls to people around the Rangers. While this is stunning considering the team’s .658 win percentage, the names mentioned leads everyone to believe this is message sending. ‘No one should feel complacent’ in NY right now.”
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Kaplan, of course, makes an excellent point. The Rangers (12-6-1) may be fourth in the Metropolitan Division, but they’re five points out of first place and have games in hand on each team in front of them. They have the eighth-best points percentage in the League.
Their current two-game skid is the first time the Rangers lost consecutive games this season.
The ship is not sinking. But perhaps GM Chris Drury, coach Peter Laviolette and Co. have a bad feeling about where this is all heading. Partially due to salary-cap restraints, the Rangers did not change this roster much during the offseason, and the core has been together for an extended stretch. Have things simply become stale with the current roster?
Laviolette admitted that calling up 22-year-old rookie forward Brett Berard on Sunday was done in part as a wake-up call. The Rangers have appeared slow and disinterested far too often the past month, when their record is 7-6-0. Buried in their own end — reminiscent of the 2024 Eastern Conference Final against the Florida Panthers — and too often one-and-done in the offensive zone have been hallmarks of New York’s recent play.
So, too, have been slow starts. The Rangers allowed 41 shots over the past two first periods in losses to the Calgary Flames and Edmonton Oilers. They were outscored only 3-0 combined thanks to the play of goalies Igor Shesterkin (in Calgary) and Jonathan Quick (in Edmonton).
In fact, the goalies have bailed out the Rangers time and again even when winning games this season. That’s their job, of course, but not on such a consistent basis. Very few times have the Rangers played a consistent 60 minutes in each facet of the game this season.
With Kreider hurt and forwards Berard and Matt Rempe recalled from the minors, Laviolette is shaking up the lineup against the Blues. He’ll keep the top line of Panarin, Trocheck and Alexis Lafreniere intact, but will mix up the others.
Berard will get a look in the top six, with Zibanejad and Will Cuylle. Reilly Smith — perhaps another trade candidate in the final year of his contract — drops to the third line, centered by Kaapo Kakko and with Adam Edstrom on the other wing. Rempe joins the fourth line with Sam Carrick and Jimmy Vesey.
No. 3 center Filip Chytil remains out; he’ll miss his fifth straight game with an upper-body injury, and Jonny Brodzinski will be a healthy scratch.
After the game Monday, the Rangers visit the Carolina Hurricanes in an important test on Wednesday, and then face a pair of struggling teams — the Philadelphia Flyers on Friday and Montreal Canadiens on Saturday — after Thanksgiving Day.
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