8:31 PM: The Rangers have confirmed the trade as:

• To Dallas: Nils Lundkvist
• To Rangers: Conditional 2023 First Round Pick, Conditional 2025 Fourth Round Pick.
• The conditions on the picks are:

• • If the Stars pick in the 2023 draft is in the top 10, the Rangers will get Dallas’ own first round pick in the 2024 draft instead and the pick will be unprotected.
  • If Lundkvist produces 55 points cumulative over the 2022-23 and 2023-24 seasons, Dallas will transfer its own third-round pick in 2025 instead of the fourth-round pick in 2025.

8:02 PM: The Rangers are trading Nils Lundkvist to the Dallas Stars for a 2023 First Round pick that is top-10 protected. (Larry Brooks)

The pick rolls to 2024 if Dallas picks in the Top-10. (Brooks)

The Rangers will also receive a conditional fourth round pick in 2025. (The Athletic)

Lundkvist had requested a trade from the Rangers last month.

Adam Rotter: Lundkvist gets his wish and the chance for a fresh start in Dallas and the Rangers gain a second pick in the 2023 First Round and another mid-round pick.

I’m sure the Rangers would have preferred to get a player in exchange for Lundkvist, but I think a first round pick may be more valuable. It definitely provides them with a lot of flexibility and another A-level asset to use at the trade deadline this year, pending Dallas not collapsing and falling into the top-10. I don’t know that they’d move two-first round picks at the deadline, unless it was for a major, team controlled player (using both in the same deal) or the opportunity to acquire two difference maker-type rentals, if cap space allows. I think it’s more likely that the Rangers use one of the picks at the deadline and keep the second pick to either make a pick in the draft or use it to add reinforcements then.

Ultimately Lundkvist, through no real fault of his own, got passed on the depth chart. They drafted him in June 2018 and then in a span of six weeks or so in the spring of 2019 the Rangers acquired Adam Fox and then Jacob Trouba. Lundkvist kept progressing in Sweden and came over last year as one of the best defensemen not in the NHL. It’s not hard to see Lundkvist being an improved player after a transition year last year, but he isn’t taking Fox’s spot, Trouba’s spot is secure and Braden Schneider and his physicality fit more with how Gerard Gallant wants to play. Lundkvist saw his present and future blocked and got moved and the Rangers get some assets that they will probably use to add player(s) that will help more in their pursuit of a championship this year and, maybe, beyond.