The Colorado Avalanche and New York Rangers kicked off this year’s trade deadline season with an interesting trade. At first glance, the deal doesn’t appear to move the needle. But upon closer inspection, this deal is like an iceberg, hiding its true value beneath the surface.
Firstly, let’s recap the trade:
Avalanche get:
- D Ryan Lindgren
- F Jimmy Vesey
- UDC Hank Kempf
Rangers get:
- D Calvin de Haan
- F Juuso Parssinen
- 2025 2nd round pick
- 2025 4th round pick
All right, so a swap of mostly depth pieces, right?
Well, let’s look at the motives behind this trade. To begin with, the Rangers are on the fringe of the Eastern Conference playoff race. Their loss on Friday night against the Toronto Maple Leafs was a bitter pill to swallow as the Rangers failed to make up ground in Metro Division.
With about 22 games left in the season, it appears the Rangers have raised the white flag. While they still have a chance to make the playoffs, the difference the Rangers have to make up may be too much to overcome at this point in this season.
So, this trade is more about clearing up cap space as the Rangers need to sign K’Andre Miller and Zac Jones. Plus, they have other serviceable blue liners in Urho Vaakanainen and Will Borgen. Plus, having Adam Fox rounds out what could be a solid defensive core for the Rangers next season.
Meanwhile, Calvin de Haan is a depth piece for New York that should be a seventh defenseman at this point. Juuso Parssinen provides some additional depth in the Rangers' bottom six, particularly in case of injuries heading into next season.
Overall, the true win for the Rangers in this trade are the draft picks. The second-round pick was originally New York’s. The Rangers sent the pick in the deal back in 2022 when Utah was still the Arizona Coyotes. Then, Utah sent the pick to the Avalanche in a pick swap at last year’s draft. However, Rangers will have a choice between their original pick or one that the Avs got from Carolina in the Rantanen deal.
The fourth-rounder will be a choice Colorado’s own pick or the Vancouver Canucks’, one the got in the Erik Bannstrom deal earlier this season.
Overall, the Rangers get a B+ on this deal. They dump cap space and get two potentially useful picks that could be packaged as part of a larger deal. The issue will be is the Rangers are inclined to move these picks or keep them as a part of a retool for the future.