1/31/24 | Pierre LeBrun writes in The Athletic that, in his opinion, the Rangers and Habs not making a deal because of issues between members of the front office is “vastly exaggerated” and that both teams will deal with each other if the right deal is there.
Larry Brooks wrote that the issues between the two teams would “not stop” them from making a deal if “one were to make sense.” (NY Post)
1/29/24 | On 32 Thoughts, Friedman was asked if the Rangers are looking for two centers and said “I think so. They were definitely looking for one because they thought Chytil was coming back and they were definitely looking for one. To me, that one was a depth center, somebody that has some experience or was having a good year. I do think the Rangers could be looking for two now. Monahan….the Rangers, the whole Jeff Gorton/Rangers dynamic…let’s say that they aren’t on each others Christmas card list, let’s go with that. So that complicates the deal there, but that is the kind of player they are looking for….it does mean that maybe you need to pay more of a price.”
Arthur Staple wrote in The Athletic that some people don’t believe Chris Drury “will even reach out” to Montreal about Monahan.
1/27/24 | On Hockey Night in Canada, Elliotte Friedman spoke about Montreal’s Sean Monahan and said “I think that one of the teams that people are looking at is the New York Rangers. The Rangers were already looking for a center and now they may need to look for two. Filip Chytil was re-injured yesterday, we wish him all the best, it doesn’t sound great, so I do think that a number of teams are wondering if Monahan is very much on the Rangers radar. The big challenge there isn’t a lot of love lost between the two front offices, the Canadians and Rangers, so will it be a complicated deal to do between them.”
Monahan, 29, has 13 goals and 21 assists this season in 48 games.
He is a pending UFA and has a cap hit of $1.985 million.
Adam Rotter: Monahan makes sense for the Rangers. He’s a quality top-nine player that will be plenty motivated as a pending UFA and also someone who has missed a lot of time the last few years. The friction between Montreal/Jeff Gorton and the Rangers is real and some think that it’s hard to imagine Jeff Gorton being okay with potentially beefing up the Rangers for the playoffs without a big return coming back for Monahan. Some think that this could be like the Rangers, and Jeff Gorton’s, pursuit of Jack Eichel a few years ago. The feeling was that Buffalo was willing to trade Eichel to the Rangers as long as the Rangers paid a higher, potentially much higher, price than another team. It’s different in that the pieces going back to Buffalo would have been some combination of picks and the Rangers top young players and Monahan is likely only going to cost draft picks. There is debate about whether Monahan will get a first round pick from anyone, but it’s easy to imagine that the price for him for the Rangers would start with that. I’m not sure the Rangers will go for that and that could end the pursuit right there.