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New York Rangers Acquire Patrick Kane

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Though it has been evident for a while that Chicago Blackhawks legend Patrick Kane would be joining the New York Rangers, what wasn’t so clear is the price they would be forced to pay for him.  That price is now known as the trade has been finalized with Kane and defenseman Cooper Zech heading to the Rangers as part of a three-team trade that also involves Arizona.  Chicago receives a 2023 conditional second-round pick and a fourth-round pick along with defenseman Andy Welinski from New York along with the rights to blueliner Vili Saarijarvi from Arizona while the Coyotes receive a 2025 third-round pick from the Rangers for brokering the deal by retaining 25% of Kane’s contract after Chicago held back the maximum 50% of his $10.5MM AAV.

The 2023 second-rounder can become a first-round selection if the Rangers make it to the Conference Finals. It would then be conveyed in either 2024 (top-10 protected) or 2025.  The third-rounder going to Arizona will either be the Rangers’ own pick or the better of theirs and Dallas’ if defenseman Nils Lundkvist has 55 points combined this season and next which would transfer the Stars’ 2025 selection to New York.

Just as it played out with Claude Giroux last season, a franchise icon with full no-movement protection essentially dictated his destination, resulting in an underwhelming return. The Blackhawks were not able to land a guaranteed first-round pick in the deal, but will send Kane to his preferred team and still recoup some value.

When it became clear that the Blackhawks were tearing it down to rebuild through the draft, it made little sense for them to re-sign Kane in the offseason. If he was going to leave anyway, getting a second (or first) before he walked out the door only helps the efforts of general manager Kyle Davidson. Kane wasn’t forced out the door, but will now get another chance at the Stanley Cup this season with a loaded Rangers club.

After New York acquired Vladimir Tarasenko earlier this month, it appeared they were out of the running for Kane. They had a tight cap situation and had made their significant acquisition. Even Kane seemed to know he wouldn’t be headed to New York, telling reporters that it seemed like they had “filled their void” with the deal.

But now, with the help of some creative cap gymnastics, the Rangers have made enough room to land both star wingers, giving them a forward group that looks like an All-Star roster.

He also leaves Chicago with a legacy that will be hard to beat. While Kane sits second on the all-time Blackhawks scoring list, many will remember him as the most talented player in franchise history. His 1,225 regular season points came in just 1,161 games, numbers that will have him in the Hall of Fame one day.

Now 34, Kane will be an unrestricted free agent this summer unless he signs an extension with the Rangers. That certainly seems possible, though it will be difficult for New York to fit everyone in, giving some raises they own to some other players. For now, the focus will be on winning the Stanley Cup after loading up as much as they can.

Should they reach the third round, and fork over a first-rounder to Chicago, the Blackhawks would then own seven first-round selections over the next three years. After picking three players at the top of the 2022 draft, their system will quickly be loaded with talent that can mature together. Perhaps they’ll find the next star in that bunch, but simple probability suggests they won’t find another Kane.

Daily Faceoff’s Frank Seravalli was the first to report the draft picks while ESPN’s Emily Kaplan was the first to report the conditional element on the second-rounder.  PHNX Sports’ Craig Morgan was the first with the return for Arizona’s involvement.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

New York Rangers Make Multiple Roster Moves

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The New York Rangers have announced a few moves today ahead of their anticipation acquisition of Patrick Kane. They’ve recalled defenseman Braden Schneider from the AHL’s Hartford Wolf Pack, re-assigning forward Ryan Carpenter in his place. In addition, the Rangers have traded forward Austin Rueschhoff to the Nashville Predators in exchange for future considerations, per the team.

PuckPedia notes these transactions won’t be registered until tomorrow for cap reasons related to the Kane trade.

Schneider, New York’s first-round pick in the 2020 NHL Entry Draft, has solidified his role full-time in the NHL this season after splitting last year between the Rangers and Wolf Pack. He was sent down yesterday in a brief cap-related move. Still just 21, the right-shot D-man has five goals and 15 points in 59 games this year, along with solid defensive play.

Carpenter, on the other hand, has seen about equal time with the Rangers and Wolf Pack this year after multiple consecutive seasons as a full-time NHLer. The 32-year-old forward has a goal and two assists in 22 games with the Rangers this season, but he’s been in Hartford since the middle of January. Like Schneider, he was moved between leagues yesterday for cap-related reasons.

With the Rueschhoff trade, the Rangers move out a contract as they prepare to make a big add. In the midst of his third season with the Wolf Pack, the 25-year-old undrafted free agent will likely report to the AHL’s Milwaukee Admirals. The former Western Michigan University standout had 20 goals, 23 assists, and 43 points in 113 games with Hartford across three seasons and has yet to make his NHL debut.

K’Andre Miller Suspended Three Games

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Feb 28: As expected, Miller has received a three-game suspension for unsportsmanlike conduct. He will be forced out of the Rangers lineup and miss games against the Flyers, Senators, and Bruins.

Feb 27: After being ejected from the game last night, New York Rangers defenseman K’Andre Miller will have a hearing to determine any supplementary discipline. Miller earned a match penalty for spitting at Los Angeles Kings defenseman Drew Doughty.

Today, Miller released a statement on the incident:

I wanted to take a moment to address what occurred in last night’s game. I have all the respect in the world for Drew Doughty and what happened was completely accidental. I would never intend to do something like that on purpose, it goes against everything I am as a person and player. I felt awful about it and I am thankful Drew gave me the opportunity to apologize and explain myself in person after the game. 

Despite the apology, Miller could very well face a multi-game suspension. In 2019, Garnet Hathaway was given a three-game suspension for a similar incident. Interestingly, in that case, the suspension was handed down directly from the league, not the Department of Player Safety. The DoPS announced Miller’s hearing, though perhaps that is simply for public announcement, and this, too, will go directly to the commissioner’s office.

A suspension for Miller would complicate the Rangers’ delicate cap dance in preparation for an expected Patrick Kane trade. If he does get ruled out, the team may have to delay any acquisition an extra day (or two).

Latest On Rangers, Kane

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  • Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet points out that the New York Rangers don’t actually have to wait until tomorrow to acquire Patrick Kane, only past today’s salary cap threshold. The cap is calculated on the active roster at 4pm CT every day, meaning the Rangers could land Kane a few minutes later and have him applied to Wednesday’s number instead. All signs continue to point to Kane joining the Rangers this week, potentially even in time to take on the Philadelphia Flyers tomorrow night.

Ryan Carpenter, Braden Schneider Dressed, Not Playing For New York Rangers

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As the New York Rangers carefully manage their cap in preparation for the expected addition of Patrick Kane later this week, some interesting decisions must be made. Tonight Ryan Carpenter and Braden Schneider are dressed for the game but are not expected to actually play a shift, according to Arthur Staple of The Athletic.

The reason is that these players will be sent down to the minor leagues in the coming days, allowing the Rangers to bank enough cap space to add Kane before the trade deadline. If either one suffered an injury, the plan—one with very little room for error—would be impossible, and the Rangers would be forced to make a different transaction to accommodate an incoming cap hit.

It does not mean that Carpenter or Schneider are involved in the potential trade (though it doesn’t rule that out, either), only that the team needs to protect their health as the few waiver-exempt players on the roster. Because they will still be dressed, the Rangers won’t get the bonus emergency exception that playing shorthanded usually affords a team.

Playing with just 16 skaters is difficult, but it’s a small price to pay for potentially adding a future Hall of Famer later this week. The Rangers don’t play again until Wednesday. As if taunting the hockey gods, though, K’Andre Miller has taken a match penalty in the first period for spitting at Los Angeles Kings defenseman Drew Doughty, which means the Rangers are effectively playing with just four defensemen. It also will mean an automatic review of the situation by the league and a potential suspension for Miller this week.

Jake Leschyshyn Clears Waivers

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Feb 26: Along with the other two players on waivers, Leschyshyn has cleared without issue. He has been sent to the minor leagues in favor of Ryan Carpenter, who was recalled because the Rangers need 18 skaters if they are cap compliant. Carpenter’s $750K cap hit is slightly lower, though, allowing the team to bank a tiny bit of extra space today.

Feb 25: With the Rangers expected to be trying to clear up some salary to make another move to add to their roster, TSN’s Darren Dreger reports (Twitter link) that Jake Leschyshyn is expected to be on waivers at the top of the hour.

It will be the second time that the 23-year-old is on waivers this season as Vegas put him on the wire back in January when New York picked him up.  Leschyshyn has yet to put up a single point in 35 games in 2022-23 between the two teams (22 with the Golden Knights, 13 with the Rangers) although he does have 55 hits and has won a little over 50% of his faceoffs so far.  Last season was his first taste of NHL action when he had four goals and two assists in 41 appearances with Vegas.

Notably, Leschyshyn is in the first season of a three-year, one-way deal that carries a cap hit of $766.7K.  Teams may be hesitant to commit two years of guaranteed salary to a player whose place on an NHL roster is very much in flux even though starting next season, his AAV will be below the league minimum.  If Vegas elects to put in a claim and no one else does, they would be permitted to send Leschyshyn to the minors but if anyone else opted to, he would need to stay on the NHL roster.

Trade Deadline Primer: New York Rangers

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The trade deadline is inching closer and is now less than a week away. Where does each team stand, and what moves should they be looking to make? We continue our look around the league with the New York Rangers.

The New York Rangers went through a roster re-tool for four seasons before launching back into contender status last season. A Vezina Trophy campaign from goaltender Igor Shesterkin, a near Norris Trophy winning season from Adam Fox and a career high in points from Artemi Panarin carried the team all the way to the Eastern Conference Final. They pulled ahead in that series 2-0 before losing four consecutive low-scoring close games to the Tampa Bay Lightning.

The Rangers headed into this season with high expectations, and are among a pack of six Eastern Conference teams that appear to be the league’s best. They will continue to fight with the Carolina Hurricanes and New Jersey Devils for the Metropolitan Division crown down the stretch and whoever emerges from that battle in the first two playoff rounds will likely face either the Boston Bruins, Toronto Maple Leafs or Lightning in the Eastern Conference Final.

It is going to be a battle of wills to get to the Stanley Cup Final from the eastern side and the Rangers have already begun to load up. They acquired Vladimir Tarasenko and Niko Mikkola from the St. Louis Blues for a conditional 2023 first-round pick, Sammy Blais, Hunter Skinner and a 2024 fourth-round pick.

They also moved Vitali Kravtsov to the Vancouver Canucks for Will Lockwood and a seveth-round pick in 2026. Jake Leschyshyn was also put on waivers earlier today. Both of these moves seem to be made to maximize the team’s cap space for an upcoming trade.

Record

33-17-9

Deadline Status

Buyer

Deadline Cap Space

$1.67MM, 0/3 retention slots used, 47/50 contracts used, per CapFriendly.

Upcoming Draft Picks

2023: DAL 1st, NYR 2nd, COL 3rd, NYR 6th, WIN 6th

2024: NYR 1st, NYR 2nd, NYR 3rd, NYR 5th, NYR 6th, NYR 7th

Trade Chips

The Rangers 2023 first-round pick is tied up in a conditional trade for Tarasenko. The Blues will get the later of the Rangers pick or the Dallas Stars first-round pick that was acquired for Nils Lundkvist. Either way, they still have a 2023 first-round pick and their own 2024 first-round pick as well as their second-round picks in 2023 and 2024.

Brennan Othmann was the Rangers first-round pick in 2021. He is having a great season in the Ontario Hockey League, where he has scored 24 goals and 55 points in 44 games for the Peterborough Petes. He was solid at the past two World Junior Championships, scoring a combined 12 points in 13 games for Canada and winning a pair of gold medals. If the Rangers are going to add another big name, Othmann would allow them to add just about anyone on the market.

Will Cuylle is a 21-year-old left winger who is playing his first AHL season. He has scored 17 goals and 26 points in 48 games for the Hartford Wolf Pack after a tremendous Junior career. He was taken in the second round of the 2020 NHL Draft and with all the wingers likely to be with the Rangers long term, like Panarin, Chris Kreider, Alexis Lafreniere and Kaapo Kakko, the Rangers could afford to move Cuylle.

Matthew Robertson is a promising young defenceman who is going to have a hard time finding a full-time role with the Rangers. The 21-year-old has a nice mix of size and skill, but the Rangers already have a deep crop of blueliners. At 6-foot-3 and 211 pounds, Robertson is tough enough to defend his own zone and has 20 points in 48 AHL games, showing a bit of an offensive side as well. Rebuilding teams love young NHL-ready defenders and Robertson fits that description.

Other Potential Trade Chips: Zac Jones, Adam Sykora, Bryce McConnell-Barker

Team Needs

1) Top-six winger: The Rangers have already added Tarasenko and he is playing on a line with Panarin and Mika Zibanejad. They also have a tremendous “kid line” as their third line with Filip Chytil between Lafreniere and Kakko. Vincent Trocheck is playing on a line with Chris Kreider and Jimmy Vesey. The odd-man out here would be Vesey who has 21 points in 58 games. The Rangers are heavily rumored to be in on Patrick Kane, and he would round out the team’s top six perfectly.

2) Left Defenceman: The Rangers have a big question mark hovering over them now as defenceman Ryan Lindgren was injured in today’s game. If he is out long term, the team could place him on LTIR and add a player matching his cap hit of $3MM. Even if he is not out long term, the team could add a depth piece on defence, as any contender likes to do at this time of year. They are certainly not lacking on the back end with Lindgren, Fox, Jacob Trouba, K’Andre Miller, Mikkola and Braden Schneider, but picking up a veteran who can fill in for injuries would be helpful.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

Ryan Lindgren Leaves Game With Injury

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  • New York Rangers defenceman Ryan Lindgren left the team’s afternoon game early today after a questionable hit by T.J. Oshie of the Washington Capitals. Oshie was not penalized for his hit, but contact appeared to be from behind as Lindgren fell awkwardly into the boards. Larry Brooks of the New York Post reported after the game that Lindgren had his left arm in a sling. There was no further update from the team.

Canucks Acquire Vitali Kravtsov

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The Canucks are expected to be adding a young forward to their lineup as they’ve acquired winger Vitali Kravtsov from the Rangers.  Going to New York is winger William Lockwood and a 2026 seventh-round draft pick.  Both teams have announced the deal.

Kravtsov was the ninth-overall pick in 2018 but has struggled in limited NHL action and has just three goals and three assists in 28 games this season.  He also played in 20 games back in 2020-21 and produced at a similar rate, notching two goals and two helpers in 20 contests.

Last season, Kravtsov opted to return to the KHL instead of reporting to New York, picking up 13 points in 17 games with Traktor Chelyabinsk during the regular season before adding seven goals in 15 playoff contests.  That was enough for New York to give him a one-year, one-way $875K contract for this season.  He’ll be arbitration-eligible this summer and will be owed a $840K qualifying offer.

To make room for Kravtsov on the roster, the Canucks announced (Twitter link) that center Curtis Lazar has been placed on injured reserve.  It’s the second trip to the IR for the 28-year-old who has five goals and 124 hits in 45 games this season.

As for Lockwood, the 24-year-old has been up and down this season, getting into 13 games with Vancouver where he picked up an assist along with 37 hits while averaging just over 10 minutes per game.  He has been more productive with AHL Abbotsford though, collecting a dozen goals and six assists in 26 contests.  He’s on a one-year, two-way deal with $750K in the NHL and should remain in the minors with his new team.

It’s certainly an underwhelming return for Kravtsov, once viewed as a key piece of the future for the Rangers.  However, his struggles in the NHL and the potential for him to return to the KHL certainly deflated his value.  But this move, coupled with the waiving of Jake Leschyshyn earlier today, will open up some extra cap space for New York to try to add another piece down the stretch; Chicago winger Patrick Kane has been speculatively linked to them recently and these deletions would be enough to squeak him in at 25% of his AAV.  Meanwhile, it’s about as low-risk an acquisition as possible for Vancouver who will now try to see if Kravtsov can become more of an impact player with a new organization.

Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman was the first to report that Kravtsov was being traded to Vancouver.

New York Rangers To Scratch Vitali Kravtsov, Jake Leschyshyn

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The New York Rangers have announced that forwards Vitali Kravtsov and Jake Leschyshyn will be held out of tonight’s game against the Detroit Red Wings for “roster management reasons.”

While they used a less direct phrase, this move has presumably been made for the same reasons players such as Vladislav Gavrikov, Jakob Chychrun, and Dmitry Orlov, among others, have been healthy scratched: the team has a trade in mind they want to make, and doesn’t want to risk injuries to players they’re looking at trading throwing a wrench in their plans.

While they obviously have not yet been traded and it’s definitely possible that this is simply a precautionary measure, this is also the most official indication given out to this point that Kravtsov’s time as a Ranger is coming to an end.

The big 23-year-old winger was the ninth-overall selection at the 2018 draft, and was viewed as one of the centerpiece prospects from the Rangers’ rebuilding phase. The team envisioned him being the type of power forward that is becoming all too rare in the NHL, but since being drafted Kravtsov has largely disappointed.

There were significant challenges in his development process, with Kravtsov’s 2019-20 season spent mostly in the AHL as the standout point of tension. It was widely reported that Kravtsov was not comfortable developing his game in an AHL setting, and those reports were in large part confirmed when he departed Hartford mid-season to head back to the KHL. Kravtsov eventually made a trade request, but ended up remaining in the Rangers’ organization and developing in the KHL.

This season, Kravtsov finally made the Rangers out of camp and had a real shot to seize a valuable role given New York’s paper-thin depth at the right winger position to start the year. He hasn’t done much with that opportunity, though, and has scored in total six points in 28 games. His inability to seize the moment led to the Rangers’ acquisition of Vladimir Tarasenko from the St. Louis Blues, and the team remains interested in Patrick Kane to further add from the outside to their right-wingers.

Kravtsov still has intriguing physical tools and has at times looked very impressive in the KHL. But his performance in North America has left much to be desired, and it’s likely that a change of scenery would be the best path for both parties moving forward.

As for Leschychyn, he was a relatively recent waiver claim by New York who has played 13 mostly anonymous games for the Rangers. He’s averaged 8:21 time on ice per game for coach Gerard Gallant, and is likely being scratched due to cap reasons, as the Rangers would likely ship his salary out in any trade for a pricey incoming player.

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