The Rangers are trading Will Borgen to the Bruins for a 2027 second round pick and conditional third round pick in 2028. (Walker)
The condition on the pick is that the Rangers will receive Boston’s 2028 second round pick if the Bruins make the Conference Finals in either 2026-27 or 2027-28 and Borgen plays in 50% of the games. (Walker)
The Rangers acquired Borgen for two draft picks and Kaapo Kakko in December 2024. The Rangers then signed Borgen to an extension a few weeks later.
Adam Rotter: With the acquisition of Sean Durzi in the Vincent Trocheck trade the Rangers were going to need to move either Will Borgen or Braden Schneider. Adam Fox and Durzi will fill the top two spots on the right side and so Borgen or Schneider were going to have to go because the Rangers wouldn’t keep either of them as just the seventh defenseman. With all the talk since the deadline about Braden Schneider it wasn’t hard to imagine that he would be the one to go but he’s also still younger and with higher upside than Borgen. The issue with trading Schneider is that he’s an RFA and what would be the right value for a 24-year old defenseman who could easily become a reliable top-four, physical defenseman? I always thought it was a little far-fetched that they would move Schneider unless it was as part of a bigger deal. Had he been included in the Pavel Dorofeyev deal I would have understood, but short of something like that, I thought keeping Schneider made more sense.
Borgen though is signed for four more seasons and his no-move clause became a 15-team no-trade list today. That cost certainty made Borgen easier to move. Getting two draft picks is a nice return for someone who is a nice player and probably best suited to be a good third pairing guy on a good team. He played above that for long stretches with the Rangers and they upgraded with Sean Durzi. Could he have been the third pair on this team if they traded Schneider? Sure, but moving him made more sense than worrying about trying to get close to equal value for Schneider.