2/18/22 | Elliotte Freidman was on the NHL Network on Thursday and said “I think a lot of the questions about who they got might be Lundkvist on defense, he’s a name that has been out there, I do think there is a possibility he could be moved by the Rangers. Kravtsov is another player, he is overseas and I am getting really mixed reports on Kravtsov. Some teams have been asking if it’s guaranteed that he will be coming back next year and have been told ‘yes,’ but I’ve also had some teams tell me that they aren’t convinced 100% yet that the Rangers are going to move him, they might want to see if they can repair the relationship. I think those are some of the players that are potentially being looked at. The other way around, I think Ben Chiarot is a name that has been linked to the Rangers and makes a lot of sense, he’s a rental left D with playoff experience.”
2/16/22 | 9:51 AM: Pierre LeBrun tweets to “keep an eye” on the Rangers and Montreal Canadiens in regards to the trade deadline.
LeBrun says that Montreal “covets” some of the Rangers prospects and that the Habs could “fill some Rangers needs.”
LeBrun says that Montreal is looking to add prospects over picks since they already have 12 picks ahead of this draft.
The Rangers have previously been linked to defenseman Ben Chiarot and forward Artturi Lehkonen.
Arthur Staple said on his podcast for The Athletic that one of the names he has heard “quite concretely” with the Rangers is Lehkonen.
While on Buffalo’s WGR on Thursday 2/3, Darren Dreger was speaking about the Minnesota Wild and Ottawa Senators scouting each other and then added “the New York Rangers are paying close attention to Ottawa.”
Vitali Kravtsov was linked to Montreal earlier in the season, but that was before Jeff Gorton was hired.
Adam Rotter: Well it’s not a surprise that Montreal would “covet” some of the Rangers prospects since nearly all of them, except for this past draft, were added while Jeff Gorton was GM. You’d figure that Braden Schneider, Nils Lundkvist and Zac Jones would be high on the Montreal list, but two of those three were the Rangers third defense pair last night and would seem highly unlikely to move unless the Rangers were getting a younger player or player with term in return. Lundkvist certainly seems like he could be moved and maybe Jeff Gorton reunites with two-thirds of the 2018 first round picks in getting Lundkvist and Kravtsov. Those are just the higher-end or high picks and I think you’d have to also think Montreal would be interested in guys like Morgan Barron, Will Cuylle, Justin Richards, Matthew Robertson or Tarmo Reunanen. Again, Jeff Gorton has connections to nearly everyone but the eight players they drafted last summer.
But what would the Rangers get in exchange for those guys? I’m hesitant to trade anything of high value for a defenseman since that guy would be on the third pair and the Rangers may have a solution with a Zac Jones/Patrik Nemeth and Braden Schneider pair. Up front, Lehkonen makes sense and he would boost the third line and provide a lot of depth, but he’s an RFA and the Rangers may not be able to afford him moving forward. If the focus is just this year then that doesn’t matter and the Rangers can either cut or trade Lehkonen in the offseason. Someone like Cedric Paquette makes sense as someone who can be added to the bottom-six and play any role. He’s cheap and wouldn’t cost a high value player, but he would make sense.