Rangers brief history of trades with rival Islanders
For 30 years, the New York Rangers had the metro area all to themselves in the NHL. After literally sharing Madison Square Garden for several seasons with the New York Americans, that team moved to Brooklyn and then eventually folded in 1942. It wasn’t until three decades later that the Rangers had another close local rival.
The birth of the Rangers rivalry with the New York Islanders began in 1972, when the Long Island upstarts entered the NHL. With the Garden less than 30 miles from Nassau Coliseum, things became heated quickly between the Rangers and Islanders, and their respective fan bases.
You might be familiar with “Potvin Sucks!” chants at MSG, or the old “1940!” chorus at the Coliseum.
Because both teams play in the same division and conference, they’ve never met in the Stanley Cup Final. They did play eight times in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, so far, with the Islanders holding a 5-3 lead, including a stunning upset in 1975. The last time these clubs met in the postseason was 1994, when the Rangers swept the Islanders in the first round, en-route to winning their first Stanley Cup championship in 54 years.
Ultimately, it was just a payback victory after the Islanders eliminated the Blueshirts four consecutive years during the the early 1980s, including the final three seasons of their Stanley Cup Dynasty.
Based on the proximity and animosity between the two clubs, it would surprise no one that the Rangers and Islanders completed only four trades with one another in more than 50 years of competition. And only two of those took place since 1972.
Clearly, neither side wants to take a chance and be burned by their next-door neighbor.
Rangers limited trade history with Islanders
Though there have been many players who logged time with both the Rangers and Islanders, including Pat LaFontaine, Darius Kasparaitis, John Vanbiesbrouck, Doug Weight, Ryan Strome, Mathieu Schneider and Greg Gilbert (the only player to have won a Stanley Cup championship with each team), only a precious few can say they were actually traded between the two local rivals.
Let’s take a look.
January 26, 2026: Rangers trade Carson Soucy for third-round draft pick
With the Rangers in the midst of a second consecutive disappointing season, and the Islanders on a surprising upswing, the rivals got together to make their first trade with one another in 16 years. It was also the most significant player transaction of the four trades to date.
Carson Soucy was a top-four defenseman with the Rangers, who acquired him from the Vancouver Canucks just the year before ahead of the 2025 NHL Trade Deadline. He played 62 games with the Rangers — 16 to close out the 2024-25 season and 46 before being traded to the Islanders in 2025-26 — but averaged more than 17 minutes TOI with them, and was, by and large, a steady veteran defender.
Since Soucy could become an unrestricted free agent at season’s end, and the Rangers were beginning a retooling of their roster, it made no sense to keep him. So, they moved Soucy to the Islanders for the same price — a third-round draft pick — that they acquired him for roughly 11 months prior.
Banged up at the time on their blue line, the Islanders saw Soucy as a reliable depth option in their push for a playoff berth. And for Soucy, it was most appreciated that he could remain in New York, considering his wife gave birth to their third child just the week before.
May 25, 2010: Rangers acquire Jyri Niemi for sixth-round pick (Tanner Lane)
This trade between the Rangers and Islanders took place in 2010 and was the first one between the rivals since the Islanders inaugural season in 1972-73.
For the record, the bold general managers to take part in the first Rangers-Islanders trade in 38 years were Glen Sather and Garth Snow.
Jyri Niemi was an Islanders third-round pick (72nd overall) in the 2008 NHL Draft. After playing junior hockey in his native Finland, the defenseman played three seasons with the Saskatoon Blades from 2007 to 2010 before playing three seasons in the Rangers organization. He joined the Connecticut Whale in the AHL but was more productive in two seasons in the ECHL during his tenure in the Rangers organization. Ultimately he returned to Finland to play in Liiga, and retired in 2019, without ever appearing in an NHL game.
Tanner Lane actually was drafted by the Atlanta Thrashers in the sixth round (160th overall) in 2010 after the Islanders traded the pick away. The center played three seasons in the USHL before playing in the NCAA with the University of Nebraska-Omaha. He tallied 25 points in college but did not play professional hockey. In 2019, Lane became an assistant coach with Detroit Lakes High School, a role he had as recently as 2023-24.
Nov. 14, 1972: Islanders acquire Ron Stewart for cash
Ron Stewart played 21 years in the NHL, winning three Stanley Cup titles with the Toronto Maple Leafs in 1962, 1963, and 1964. Eventually, he left Toronto and played in Boston and St. Louis before a 1967 trade (with Ron Attwell for Red Berenson and Barclay Plager) sent him to the Rangers from the Blues. Stewart played parts of four seasons from 1967 to 1971 with the Blueshirts before they shipped the veteran forward to the Vancouver Canucks with Dave Balon and Wayne Connelly for Gary Doak and Jim Wiste.
Three months later, Stewart headed back to New York in a trade for cash and Mike McMahon, who was on loan to the Canucks for the remainder of the 1971-72 season. Stewart began the 1972-73 season with the Rangers, playing 11 games before they traded him to the Islanders for cash. He went on to play the final 22 games of his career with the Islanders before retiring at the age of 40.
Stewart played 1,353 games in the NHL, though only 24 with the Rangers and 22 with the Islanders. He had three assists in his Rangers tenure and four points (two goals, two assists) with the Islanders.
June 8, 1972: Islanders acquire 1973 seventh-round pick (Denis Andersen) and eighth-round pick (Denis Desgagnes) in exchange for Rangers roster protection in NHL Expansion Draft
Denis Andersen never made it to the NHL but had productive stints in the WCHL, CHL, and NAHL-Sr. leagues from 1972 to 1976. His best season came in 1975-76 with the Erie Blades (NAHL-Sr.), when he scored 53 points in 66 games.
Denis Desgagnes was a two-time QMJHL second-team All-Star, scoring 131 points in 1971-72 and 123 points in 1972-73. He advanced to the CHL, where his production dipped to just 27 points in two seasons before a stint in the IHL, where he had 24 points in 22 games over two seasons with the Muskegon Mohawks and Milwaukee Admirals.
In the 1972 Expansion Draft, the Islanders selected defenseman Bryan Lefley from the Rangers, and the Atlanta Flames selected left winger Norm Gratton. The Blueshirts’ protected list included Eddie Giacomin, Gilles Villemure, Ab DeMarco, Jim Dorey, Bill Fairbairn, Rod Gilbert, Vic Hadfield, Ted Irvine, Bruce MacGregor, Jim Neilson, Brad Park, Jean Ratelle, Dale Rolfe, Bobby Rousseau, Rod Seiling, Pete Stemkowski and Walt Tkaczuk.
