Well, it’s officially showtime on Broadway.
The New York Rangers acquire Forward Patrick Kane and Defenseman Cooper Zech from the Chicago Blackhawks in exchange for Defenseman Andy Welinski, a 2023 conditional 2nd round draft pick (becomes a first if the Rangers make the conference finals) and a 2025 4th round pick.
The Arizona Coyotes also retain 25% of Patrick Kane’s salary for the Rangers in exchange for a conditional 2025 3rd round pick. The conditions with that pick have to do with Dallas’ Nils Lundkvist. If he gets more than 55 combined points this year and next, the Coyotes will get the better of the Rangers’ two thirds in 2025. (One of them came from Dallas as part of the Lundkvist trade.)
The Blackhawks also receive defenseman Vili Saarijarvi from Arizona as part of the trade.
Now I know what you’re all thinking. Who the hell is Cooper Zech? Undrafted, 24 year old left-handed shot defenseman who has spent time in the AHL and ECHL over the last couple years. At 5”9, he doesn’t really have much size to him but according to scouting reports, he has a high hockey IQ, sees the ice very well and has an offensive side to his game that specifically benefits the power play. With a year left on his entry level contract, Zech will be a restricted free agent after this season. He’s still young but has bounced around quite a bit over those first three years. It’s pretty clear this is more so an AHL move but you never know how those sorts of things can play out.
Bringing in Zech was just the tip of the iceberg for AHL moves as the Rangers/Wolf Pack made a handful of other moves as well. For starters, they sent big forward Austin Rueschhoff to the Predators in exchange for future considerations. The Wolf Pack also sent defenseman Zach Jordan to the Rockford Icehogs in exchange for Rangers alum, Adam Clendening. Clendening spent 31 games with the Rangers in the 16/17 season and actually put up a pair of goals accompanied by eleven assists, his career high at the NHL level. He has only played nine NHL games since then and has predominantly been an AHL defenseman since 2018. He essentially replaces the role Andy Welinski played in Hartford as the Pack retool their back end a bit.
Alright, let’s get back to the big news here. After a week that has felt like a month of Patrick Kane rumors and roster management shenanigans, the Rangers finally have their group as Kane is officially a Ranger. We all know who Kane is at this point. The good, the bad and the ugly. I’m not going to get into all that again. What’s done is done, he’s a Rangers, focus on the front of the sweater, not the back if you have to. Regardless of his problematic character, this is by far the most skilled Rangers lineup fans have seen in a very long time, possibly ever. Now Kane will not join the team in Philly tonight so we won’t get a taste of this group until tomorrow but nevertheless, barring any more chaos, it appears the Rangers are done for this years trade deadline…. Right..?
As for tonight, the Rangers kick off the start of a back to back as they head to the city of brotherly love to take on their black and orange rivals, the Philadelphia Flyers. The Rangers are coming off a huge win against the Kings on Sunday where they played significantly shorthanded and still managed to win by a substantial amount. With Kane not reporting to the team until tomorrow, there’s a chance the Rangers may need to play shorthanded again as they are officially no longer able to make any roster moves after they recall Schneider and Carpenter back to the team. Ryan Lindgren, who was injured in the Washington game, remains day-to-day but given the circumstances, may have to dress tonight, even if just to sit on the bench. Part of this has to do with K’Andre Miller, who the Rangers are now going to be without for the next couple of games.
Lost in all the chaos of roster management and Patrick Kane was a hearing that took place involving the Department of Player Safety and K’Andre Miller. Standard protocol for situations regarding what happened Sunday Night. The optimist in me had hopes that because this was Miller’s first offense and because the spitting incident was unintentional, that he might get away with a $5,000 fine or perhaps just a one game suspension. Then I remembered this is the NHL that we’re dealing with. The decision was made to suspend Key three games as the league evidently has an extremely strict policy on spitting. Meanwhile hits to the head, throwing helmetless players head first onto the ice, cases of SA and other abuse, slew footing and much more are all apparently up for debate. This league really is a joke sometimes.
Anyway, no Key tonight or for the next three games adds to the Rangers problems. With an injured Lindgren and Kane not reporting until tomorrow, we’re looking at the following for tonight’s lineup:
Kreider - Zibanejad - Vesey
Panarin - Trocheck - Tarasenko
Lafreniere - Chytil - Kakko
Goodrow - Carpenter - Motte
Mikkola - Fox
Harpur - Trouba
**Lindgren - Schneider
As I mentioned earlier, because Miller and Kane are still technically on the active roster but are unable to play tonight, the Rangers do not have the cap space to call up any additional skaters. So unless Lindgren is magically healthy enough to return to full time duties, the Rangers have two options: Dress Lindgren and just have him sit there like Schneider did last game, or actually only play 17 skaters because now that they do not have the cap flexibility to make the roster move, they would technically be allowed to play shorthanded. For anyone curious how this is going to work for the rest of the season, once the playoffs start team’s don’t have to be cap compliant. Meaning the Rangers can make all the roster moves they want and call up anyone and everyone. In these remaining 22 games however, it’s going to be hell and the Rangers need to pray to everything that nobody else goes down with injury in the meantime.
Alright, enough about the damn salary cap, let’s get to hockey! The Flyers are currently the second worst team in the Eastern Conference as they are certainly going through it right now. However with John Tortorella on the bench, you can never underestimate the intensity that his team is going to bring. Meaning the Rangers can’t take them lightly if they want to build a winning streak back up. The Rangers last saw the Flyers back in December when they beat them 6-3 to extend their win streak to six. Prior to that, Chris Kreider had the only goal to give them an overtime win against the Flyers back at the start of November. This will be the third and final meeting between the teams this season so expect a strong effort from both sides.
With Igor seeing the majority of this weekend’s action, I would say to expect Jaroslav Halak in goal tonight leaving Igor with tomorrow’s game to prepare against a big outing in Boston Saturday Afternoon. As for the Flyers, they’ve had a couple days off since being blown out by the Devils 7-0 on Saturday. In their last ten, the Flyers have gone 2-7-1, currently on a three game losing streak. They’re playing for pride at this point in the season and would love nothing more than to bounce back from an embarrassing showing against one rival with a strong performance against another. While all eyes will certainly be on Patrick Kane’s NYR debut tomorrow night at the Garden, the Rangers have to take care of business tonight.
With 22 games left in the season, the Rangers have to stay the course as the intense battle for the wild card positions can very well creep into the Rangers territory if they’re not careful. Currently six points behind the Devils, the Rangers are also going to start thinking about seeding as they would undoubtedly prefer to have home ice advantage, even if Newark is essentially filled with Rangers fans anyway. With the Kane drama finally over with, it’s time to buckle up Rangers fans! We’re in the final stretch here and as a result, I have to ask the question…
Why not us?
Chris Feldman
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