It’s been a rough start to the season for the Rangers.
After taking home the Presidents’ Trophy and finishing just three wins away from reaching the Stanley Cup Finals last year, New York has struggled to get into a groove with mainly the same roster to start this campaign.
In an effort to try and get the team going, general manager Chris Drury made a number of their longest-tenured veterans available on the trade market late last month, and with the sluggish showings continuing this week the first domino fell.
Early Friday it came out that captain Jacob Trouba wouldn’t be skating with the team for “roster-related” reasons, and just a few hours later, he was officially shipped out of town in a trade with the Anaheim Ducks.
New York had been trying to deal Trouba since before the draft last offseason, but his 15-team no-trade clause ended up getting in the way, and he stuck around before they were finally able to work something out this week.
The Rangers responded nicely by picking up a much-needed win over the Pittsburgh Penguins behind a pair of third-period goals from Reilly Smith and Vincent Trocheck, but they still have a ways to go towards turning things around.
Drury is prepared to give them that time, but he certainly isn’t closing the door on shaking things up even more.
“I’m not opposed to making more changes,” he said on a call Saturday. “But big picture, the team has been through a lot the last couple of weeks. We’d like to let the dust settle a little bit. Let some new players we acquired from Anaheim, [Brett] Berard, [Victor] Mancini, different pieces. We’d just like to let the team settle in a bit with this.”
Recent reports have indicated that guys like youngster Kaapo Kakko, star winger Chris Kreider, rental Reilly Smith, and impending UFA Ryan Lindgren have all been discussed in trade talks.
The cap space picked up by getting Trouba's deal off the books will also be a big plus.
But it looks like Drury will give this roster another opportunity to turn things around before shaking things up even more, starting on Sunday afternoon when they take on the Seattle Kraken at MSG.