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When New York Rangers president and general manager Chris Drury issued a letter on Jan. 16 outlining the team’s plan to “retool” the roster, the expectation was that the Blueshirts would be busy ahead of the NHL Trade Deadline.
That was partly correct.
The Rangers made a major move before the Olympic break, trading Artemi Panarin to the Los Angeles Kings in exchange for Liam Greentree and a conditional third and fourth-round pick.
Panarin was expected to be traded, given that he was set to become an unrestricted free agent after the 2025-26 season, and the Rangers did not intend to offer him a contract extension.
After Panarin was traded, the attention shifted to Vincent Trocheck, who many expected to get dealt before the March 6th deadline.
Trocheck even addressed the media earlier this week, where he openly discussed the possibility of moving to a different team and what that might look like.
On March 5, Trocheck was held out of the Rangers’ lineup due to roster management, as a trade appeared to be imminent.
However, the Rangers opted not to trade Trocheck despite all of the speculation and retooling direction.
Drury ultimately wasn’t satisfied with the value Trocheck was generating on the trade market and decided it was best to hold onto him.
“Vincent Trocheck is a great player,” Drury said “He’s been a great Ranger for us and a leader on and off the ice. Broadly speaking, to any player in the organization as it pertains to a retool and this trade deadline and moving forward is we’re going to make deals that make sense.
“The deals we made today and leading up to this deadline, to us made sense. Certainly weren’t going to make a trade on any player just to say we made a trade. We will always continue to try and make the team better. It certainly doesn’t stop today at the 3 o’ clock deadline.”
The Rangers were relatively quiet in the days leading up to the trade deadline.
The Rangers traded Sam Carrick to the Sabres in exchange for a third and sixth-round pick while also sending Brennan Othmann to the Calgary Flames for Jacob Battaglia, but no substantial move outside of the Panarin trade was made by Drury.
Rangers Trade Brennan Othmann To Flames In Exchange For Prospect
Rangers Trade Brennan Othmann To Flames In Exchange For Prospect The New York Rangers have reportedly traded Brennan Othmann to the Calgary Flames in exchange for Jacob Battaglia.
There still may be seismic shifts to the Rangers’ core on deck, but we’ll have to wait until the offseason to see where this “retool” takes the franchise.
“There’s a certain amount of teams, obviously, that are pushing towards getting in the playoffs. Teams and rosters look to get reset and do different things in the offseason,” Drury said.
“Teams will be looking at free agents and different things, and maybe moving draft picks once picks are set in stone after the lottery and after the playoffs. So, a lot of factors that go into it, and we’ll certainly be ready and opportunistic when and where we can.”
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