2:32PM: Kreider remains #1 on TSN‘s Trade Bait board.
10:10AM: Pierre LeBrun tweets that the “sense” is that the contract talks between Chris Kreider’s agent and Jeff Gorton haven’t yet “produced a path” to a deal.
LeBrun says that while Kreider is still “very much in play trade-wise,” it’s not uncommon for contract talks to really heat up until 2-3 day before the trade deadline. (LeBrun)
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- For everything on Kreider up to this point, click HERE.
Larry Brook writes in the NY Post that it’s “probably about 50/50” with Kreider signing or getting traded.
Brooks writes that the belief is that the Rangers may be willing to offer Kreider six-years and wonders if a six-year deal at around $6.85 million per season would get it done. (NY Post)
He also notes that Kreider will likely seek no-move/no-trade protection if he were to re-sign and possibly take less than he could get as a UFA. (NY Post)
In terms of a potential trade partner, Brooks suggests that Columbus would be a fit, especially if the Blue Jackets were willing to trade 25-year old pending RFA Josh Anderson. (NY Post)
Tampa Bay, which had been linked to Kreider by some, acquired Blake Coleman from the Devils for a 1st round pick and former first round pick Nolan Foote. Coleman is signed through next season.
Adam Rotter: I think that whether Kreider remains a Ranger or gets traded comes down to whether they are willing to do what they did for Artemi Panarin and Jacob Trouba last summer, what they did and will have to do again for Mika Zibanejad and what they did for Henrik Lundqvist and Marc Staal: give Chris Kreider significant no-move protection and allow him to be the bridge between the contending Rangers of the past and the contending Rangers of the future. Trouba is the only player without a no-move throughout, his turns into a modified no-trade in the last-two years, but he still, for the most part, controls where he is going to be. There is likely a deal to be made with term and cap hit, but Kreider will want to know, and control, that if he signs this deal he will be a Ranger throughout. It’s a lot of money and years to tie up in two left wings, with Kreider and Panarin, but if Kreider can remain healthy he should still, at worst, be able to use his skating and net-front presence to score 20 goals a season.
If they can’t or won’t make a deal, then the Rangers need to find the team not necessarily offering the most for Kreider, but the best single asset and go with that. Getting a prospect and a first, similar to what the Devils did for Blake Coleman, is fine but those assets are still years away. The Rangers want someone who can step into their top-nine right now and, while not necessarily replace, eat up some of the minutes and role that Kreider would be leaving behind. Teams won’t necessarily give those players up for a rental so the Rangers need to hope that they can leverage a few teams against each other to get that. Columbus has always made sense, and there are some who think they are going to make a major push for him this summer, and despite his injury and scoring struggles this year, Josh Anderson is the exact type of return that would work for the Rangers. Maybe conditional picks are exchanged on both sides relating to Kreider staying in Columbus and/or Anderson producing with the Rangers but it makes sense. Colorado and St. Louis are battling for the division lead in the Central so that could work in the Rangers favor and then there are the Bruins. I’m not sure the Bruins have the NHL ready young players to spare, but with Tampa already making a move maybe the Rangers can shake something from them. It’s probably going to come down to about this time next week when the Rangers will know for sure if they can get a deal done or circle back to the other teams and let them battle it out for him in the final hours.