NHL trade grades: Report cards for J.T. Miller back to Rangers, more

Part of Kuzmenko’s appeal is that he has found ways to have instant success in new places. His first season with the Canucks was a breakout, with 39 goals and 74 points. His second season was a step back, with just eight goals and 21 points in 45 games before he was traded to the Flames; he got off to a hot start again, with 14 goals and 25 points in 29 games.

That trend is what makes him a possibility on the second line where he could play alongside Sean Couturier and former SKA St. Petersburg teammate Matvei Michkov. The “high-scoring newcomer” version of Kuzmenko would be highly useful, as the Flyers are five points out of the second wild-card spot.

The scoring will help, but Kuzmenko’s play in the defensive zone will dictate quite a bit. Especially with the Flyers in the top five in the fewest shots allowed per 60 and ranked 12th in the fewest scoring chances allowed per 60, according to Natural Stat Trick.

As for Pelletier, the Flyers hope he can continue to build upon what has been his strongest professional season to date. He began the campaign in the AHL, where he had 19 points in 20 games, before he was called up to the Flames in early December.

He has gradually made a case for more playing time. Pelletier went from averaging a little more than 11 minutes per game in December to just under 15 minutes per game in January. It resulted in an offensive return of four goals and 11 points in 24 games, while also logging more than 33 minutes of short-handed ice time.

Like Frost, he’s a pending RFA. But Pelletier’s $800,000 cap hit means that he could become a more cost-effective option compared to what Philly would have had to pay Frost. –Clark

Quiet. Quiet. Quiet. Then the NHL got loud Friday with the first blockbuster trade in recent memory.

The Colorado Avalanche traded winger Mikko Rantanen in a three-team deal involving the Carolina Hurricanes and Chicago Blackhawks. Both Taylor Hall and Rantanen went to the Hurricanes, with Jack Drury and Martin Necas going to the Avs. The Avs also received a 2025 second-round pick and a 2026 fourth-round pick from the Hurricanes. The Blackhawks reacquired their 2025 third-round pick while retaining 50% of Rantanen’s salary. Prospect Nils Juntorp went from Chicago to Colorado then to Carolina.

How did each GM perform on a landscape-altering trade? Let’s find out.

Quite simply, the Hurricanes are coming for everyone.

The franchise that built its success from drafting and developing has now added an aggressive edge to be active in free agency, while pursuing the sort of trades that make them an even stronger Stanley Cup contender.

Already one of the NHL’s more legitimate championship front-runners, the Canes getting Rantanen and Hall only heightens the expectations that they have a roster capable of winning it all this season.

Rantanen provides a level of goal scoring and playmaking ability that could make a potential first line featuring Sebastian Aho and Andrei Svechnikov one of the most dangerous in the NHL. Rantanen’s ability to facilitate play while using his powerful 6-foot-4 frame to fend off defenders could be the detail that allows Aho and Svechnikov the needed time to find the type of space that puts opponents in a difficult spot.

Editor’s Picks

2 Related

Suddenly, a team that was averaging the fifth-most goals per game in the NHL this season has added more options in the form of Rantanen — one of the game’s most consistently prolific players — while Hall, a one-time Hart Trophy winner, could potentially finish the season with 20 goals. Those additions could also jump-start a power play that came into Friday ranked 17th.

And this is being done with the Blackhawks retaining half of Rantanen’s $9.25 million cap hit while Hall, who is also a pending UFA, carries a $6 million cap hit.

First-year Canes GM Eric Tulsky, who was previously one of their assistant GMs, has set a tone that the priority is to win this season. But this is also the sort of trade that is going to provide Tulsky with another test.

Can he re-sign Rantanen?

Rantanen is a pending unrestricted free agent who can land one of the NHL’s richest contracts over the coming months. It’s possible the Hurricanes could strike a deal for him. But it will take some work.

They have nine contracts coming off the books this offseason, with the most notable being Frederik Andersen ($3.40 million), Brent Burns ($5.28 million) and Dmitry Orlov ($7.75 million). PuckPedia projects the Canes will have $22.98 million available in cap space, which could be used to re-sign Rantanen while leaving enough left over to strengthen the rest of the roster.

But for now, Tulsky and his team get the highest marks.

play

Rangers trade Jacob Trouba to the Ducks

Check out some numbers behind Jacob Trouba’s time with the Rangers as he is traded to the Anaheim Ducks.

Practically any conversation about what has made the Avs one of the NHL’s most successful teams over the past six seasons has included Rantanen’s name.

His ability to create for himself, create for others, and do it in a way that could either complement Nathan MacKinnon and Cale Makar — but wasn’t reliant on MacKinnon and/or Makar — is what made Rantanen quite valuable. He is a five-time 30-goal scorer and also hit the 50-assist mark five times.

And maybe all of that was the problem for the Avs and Rantanen when it came finalizing any sort of deal.

Rantanen was a pending unrestricted free agent in the final season of a six-year deal that saw him earn $9.25 million per year. At the time he signed the contract, he was the Avs’ highest-paid player. Entering this season, he was second behind MacKinnon, who is in the first year of a deal that sees him earn $12.6 million annually.

Each month that passed without both sides agreeing to a deal led to talk that maybe the Avs could move on from Rantanen. But it initially appeared that the talk was, well, just that.

Until it wasn’t.

It appears the impasse the Avs were facing with Rantanen was the premium that comes with having a third superstar. Even though the salary cap will continue its rise in the coming years, there were still financial considerations the Avs’ front office had to ponder.

Breaking News from Emily Kaplan

Download the ESPN app and enable Emily Kaplan’s news alerts to receive push notifications for the latest updates first. Opt in by tapping the alerts bell in the top right corner. For more information, click here.

They have three more years of Valeri Nichushkin ($6.31 million per year) and Devon Toews ($7.25 million). Ross Colton ($4 million), Samuel Girard ($5.75 million), Arturri Lehkonen ($4.5 million) and Casey Mittelstadt ($5.75 million) are part of a group that has two years left on their deals.

Then there’s the money they didn’t expect to take on this season when their original goaltending tandem of Justus Annunen and Alexander Georgiev began to struggle and cost the team wins.

Annunen’s and Georgiev’s deals cost a combined $4.237 million cap hit that brought an extra layer of financial flexibility. Annunen is a pending restricted free agent and Georgiev was going to be a pending UFA.

But then, the Avs replaced them with Mackenzie Blackwood and Scott Wedgewood. While it strengthened the weakest area of the team, it came with a cost. Blackwood signed a three-year deal less than a month after they acquired him, which saw his salary go from $2.35 million annually to $5.25 million annually next season.

Now the Avalanche have $6.75 million committed to their goalies through 2025-26.

Having that much money wrapped up in those players — along with the Gabriel Landeskog uncertainty, and the fact he has three more years left at $7 million on his contract — comes against the backdrop of what the Avs must contend with after the 2026-27 season when Makar will need a very large new contract.

It’s possible Makar could command the biggest contract in the NHL. And if so, it would leave the Avs needing as much financial flexibility as possible in an offseason that also sees Colton, Girard, Lehkonen and Mittlestadt reach free agency.

That’s one of the hypotheticals facing the Avalanche. Another was why take the risk in losing one of the NHL’s premier wingers for nothing?

Although Necas is not a prolific producer like Rantanen, he does provide the Avs with a consistent two-way center who can anchor their second line in a way in which others have struggled since Nazem Kadri left in free agency after winning the Stanley Cup in 2022.

Necas is averaging a career-best 1.12 points per game this season, with the belief those figures could either sustain or increase given the Avs have a history of seeing new players succeed in their system.

There’s also the financial implication in that Necas has one more year left on his deal at $6.5 million before he hits free agency. Should the Avs look to re-sign him, the expectation is it would hypothetically come at a cost that is much cheaper compared to whatever Rantanen would have commanded.

While the chances of finding a like-for-like trade might have proved difficult, the Avs still received a two-way top-six center in Necas, with Drury giving them another bottom-six option.

play

Joel Farabee scores goal vs. Devils

Joel Farabee scores goal vs. Devils

Asset management is everything for rebuilding teams. The Blackhawks know this, which is what makes their return in this trade rather puzzling.

Hall was expected to be moved ahead of the trade deadline. The Blackhawks were perceived to be looking to receive draft capital in return for a player who could either be a top-six or at least top-nine option for a contender.

Getting a third-round pick for Hall whether the Blackhawks retained any of his salary? OK, bet. Getting a third-round pick for retaining 50% of a salary to facilitate a deal as a third-party broker? Sure, that’s the price of doing business.

But to receive only a single draft pick while giving up Hall and retaining 50% of Rantanen’s salary? That raises quite a few questions about why the Hawks couldn’t attract more in this deal, particularly upon the realization that the Avs received a 2025 second-round pick and a 2026 fourth-round pick in addition to getting two NHL players in Drury and Necas.

The Blackhawks are not struggling for draft capital. They entered Friday with eight picks for 2025, nine picks for 2026 and seven picks in 2027. They’ll have four picks in the first two rounds this summer, including two first-rounders. But no franchise in a rebuild has ever openly complained about having too many draft picks.

They couldn’t get more than a single pick here?

There was always the hypothetical that Hall’s $6 million cap hit meant they would have had to retain salary. But retaining 50% of Rantanen’s salary costs more than it would have to retain the same percentage of Hall’s.

Moving on from Hall now means the Blackhawks have other pending UFAs who could be used to attain more draft capital. It’s a group that includes Ryan Donato, Pat Maroon and Alec Martinez among others, as the franchise is in line for its fourth consecutive top-10 pick and its third straight top-three pick.

Donato carries a $2 million cap hit and Maroon is at $1.3 million, which makes their salaries more affordable for an interested team. Martinez has a $4 million cap hit. — Clark

Another member of what was once considered the New York Rangers’ future is now gone, with the club trading Kaapo Kakko to the Seattle Kraken.

The Kraken received Kakko in exchange for defenseman Will Borgen, a 2025 third-round pick and a 2025 sixth-round pick.

Here’s a look at how both front offices performed with this trade and what it all means.

Shortly after the trade was announced, it was reported that Kakko’s quote to reporters before the team’s 2-0 loss Tuesday against the Nashville Predators did not play a role in the trade.

The 23-year-old forward was a healthy scratch in a 3-2 loss Sunday to the St. Louis Blues, which led to him saying, “I know you’ve got to do something as a coach when you’re losing games, but I think it’s just easy to pick a young guy and boot him out. That’s how I feel to be honest.”

Kakko had four goals and 14 points in 30 games. He was on pace for 11 goals and 37 points, entering the final season of his contract as a player who had yet to reach the heights of what was expected when he was the No. 2 pick of the 2019 draft.

Now Kakko is gone, and he becomes the latest personnel move in a season that has led to questions about where the Rangers go next — and if it could still somehow result in the club reaching the Eastern Conference finals for the third time in four years.

The Rangers had lost five in a row and six of their past seven games around the time GM Chris Drury sent a memo to the rest of the league to inform them the Rangers were open for business. It led to them trading captain and defenseman Jacob Trouba to the Anaheim Ducks on Dec. 6, a move that added salary cap space with Trouba still having another year left on his contract worth $8 million.

Moving on from Trouba meant Braden Schneider and Victor Mancini would receive more opportunities. Those plans changed with K’Andre Miller going on injured reserve Friday, which put a strain on a Rangers team that is 2-6 since Trouba was traded.

It’s why Schneider was partnered with rookie Zac Jones on the second pairing, with Urho Vaakanainen, who was acquired in the Trouba trade, on the third pairing with veteran journeyman Chad Ruhwedel.

Losing on Tuesday to the last-place Predators gave the Rangers a third straight defeat, during which time they were outscored 10-3.

Then came the trade that saw them get Borgen, send Mancini to the AHL and recall forward Matt Rempe.

Adding Borgen gives the Rangers another right-handed defenseman who has shown he can play top-four minutes while logging heavy minutes on the penalty kill — something the Rangers needed with Trouba still leading them in short-handed ice time as of Wednesday.

It’s also a move that provides them additional financial flexibility going forward. One of the challenges facing Drury and his front office staff was figuring out their cap situation ahead of next offseason. And that was before they signed superstar goaltender Igor Shesterkin to a long-term extension worth $11.5 million annually.

Jones, Kakko, Miller and Will Cuylle were all pending restricted free agents, while top-pairing defenseman Ryan Lindgren is a pending unrestricted free agent.

By flipping Kakko for Borgen, a pending UFA, it allows the Rangers another outlet to get money off their books with Borgen earning $2.7 million this season. It now leaves the Rangers with a six-player UFA class that also includes Jonathan Quick and Reilly Smith, among others.

This allows Drury & Co. more money to play with as the Rangers seek to keep their coveted core together. A core that no longer features a player who was once thought to be one of the faces of the future. And that’s the bottom line here; while Borgen is useful to fill the Trouba-sized hole, Kakko might have some runway left in his development, which will now be revealed in a Kraken sweater.

play

Martin Necas nets goal for Hurricanes

Martin Necas nets goal for Hurricanes

Kraken GM Ron Francis was able to take Borgen, who was the team’s pick from the Buffalo Sabres in the expansion draft, eventually turn him into a top-four defenseman, and trade him (with Day 2 draft picks) for a potential top-six forward in Kakko.

The key word being potential.

Development is one of the items that makes the NHL distinctive — and also makes it complicated. A 23-year-old in another professional sport would be met with the understanding that they’re not a finished product at such a young age.

That’s what the Kraken are banking on. It’s what the Rangers were also banking on, before pulling the rip cord on a forward who has played the second-most games of his draft class yet is sixth in points; for context, his fellow Finland countryman, Matias Maccelli, was taken 96 picks later and is separated by nine points despite playing 131 fewer games.

Kakko’s best season came in 2022-23 when he had 18 goals and 40 points in 82 games, averaging 15 minutes,18 seconds in ice time. Since then, he has scored 17 goals and 31 points in 91 games, while averaging 13:16 in ice time.

Breaking News from Emily Kaplan

Download the ESPN app and enable Emily Kaplan’s news alerts to receive push notifications for the latest updates first. Opt in by tapping the alerts bell in the top right corner. For more information, click here.

Coming to Seattle should lead to Kakko receiving opportunities that were much harder to come by in New York. Whether it be with Matty Beniers, Tye Kartye, Ryker Evans and now Shane Wright, the Kraken have shown they are willing to give young players a chance to earn minutes. Especially with captain Jordan Eberle being on long-term injured reserve, while Yanni Gourde has been day-to-day since last playing on Dec. 10.

Getting the most out of young players is one of the reasons why the Kraken hired coach Dan Bylsma and assistant Jessica Campbell. The work they did developing and winning with quite a few of the Kraken’s prospects at the AHL level could potentially lead to Kakko finding more continuity in Seattle.

Again, the key word here being, potentially.

Playing time isn’t the only thing that’s at stake. Kakko is a pending RFA who has one more year of team control before his UFA years start kicking in before the 2026-27 season.

How he performs this season could at least lead to a one-year deal, with the idea that the Kraken might also be tempted to give him more than that if he becomes a key player for them.

Entering Wednesday, the Kraken were four points out of the final Western Conference wild-card playoff spot. They played an extra game more than the team holding the last spot — the Calgary Flames — while the Utah Hockey Club is three points behind but has played three fewer games.

The Kraken were expected to be part of a grouping of teams that could potentially challenge for a wild card, with the notion they might have to decide their path (and role) ahead of the trade deadline.

Spending big money in the offseason to sign Brandon Montour and Chandler Stephenson signaled their intent about what they could do this season and beyond. Adding Kakko only adds to the belief of what this season could potentially mean for the Kraken. — Clark

After 991 games wearing an Anaheim Ducks uniform, Cam Fowler will now wear a St. Louis Blues sweater.

The Blues acquired Fowler and a 2027 fourth-round pick from the Ducks in exchange for a 2027 second-round pick and prospect defenseman Jeremie Biakabutuka. The Ducks will also retain 38.4615385% of Fowler’s salary.

Here’s a look at how both front offices did with the trade.

There are two versions of the Blues in 2024-25: The first version was struggling under Drew Bannister; the second version is under the guidance of Jim Montgomery, who was hired to replace Bannister less than a week after his own dismissal by the Boston Bruins.

In Montgomery’s eight games, the Blues have found a defensive cohesion that’s been missing. That problem has been one of the largest challenges facing GM Doug Armstrong in his bid to get the Blues back into the playoffs.

Having four defensemen with no-trade clauses was also a massive hurdle when it came to making changes. What opened the door was when one of those defensemen, Torey Krug, sustained an ankle injury that required season-ending surgery in September.

That played a role in them adding Philip Broberg via offer sheet, with the idea that they could be tempted to potentially add more should a deal that fits within their parameters become available.

Enter Fowler, who now represents another potential change in a season that has already seen quite a few.

His future with the Ducks was already in question following the Jacob Trouba trade. To have another top-four option available at a price that could fit within their salary cap structure made Fowler an attractive option for St. Louis.

Now it’s a matter of determining what sort of role Fowler, who has one more season after the 2024-25 campaign left on his contract, can play on a roster that’s allowing the sixth-fewest goals per game since the Blues hired Montgomery on Nov. 25.

Part of what has helped the Blues is they now have a team save percentage that’s fourth in the league in Montgomery’s eight games in charge; they have risen to 14th for the whole season. They are allowing the eighth-fewest high-danger chances, while sitting 13th in fewest scoring chances allowed per 60 minutes, and are around league average in shots allowed per 60.

That’s one area where Fowler could play a role. Another could be a power play that has struggled before and after they hired Montgomery. They are 20th since Montgomery took over and are 25th on the season.

This could be a win-win deal. Fowler gives the Ducks someone with experience operating a power play. The Blues provide Fowler with the ice time he wasn’t receiving on the man advantage, as he had just 10:07 in power-play ice time this season after reaching the 100-minute mark in all but one season since making his debut in 2010-11.

Fowler could pair with Colton Parayko, a duo that could be the latest building block Montgomery could use to find more consistency.

The Blues entered Saturday four points out of the final Western Conference wild-card spot, and this is a move made with erasing that gap in mind.

Ducks GM Pat Verbeek knew what this season’s climate was like for teams needing a top-four defenseman, having just acquired Trouba for Urho Vaakanainen and a 2025 fourth-round pick.

But the Ducks were facing a different situation with trying to move on from Fowler than what the Rangers were going through before they sent Trouba to Anaheim.

What helped Verbeek is that he had the necessary time to find what he felt was the strongest possible trade. And he made a deal that attained more draft capital for a franchise that’s believed to have one of the NHL’s brightest and strongest farm futures.

There’s that word. Future.

Breaking News from Emily Kaplan

Download the ESPN app and enable Emily Kaplan’s news alerts to receive push notifications for the latest updates first. Opt in by tapping the alerts bell in the top right corner. For more information, click here.

The future is one of the major reasons the Ducks moved on from Fowler, who was less than 10 games from playing No. 1,000 for the club. Drafting and developing young defensemen has become a hallmark of what the Ducks have done over the past few years.

It’s why they’ve brought up Jackson LaCombe, Pavel Mintyukov and Olen Zellweger. And while Drew Helleson was acquired in a trade, he’s a 2019 second-round pick with promise and size.

The improvement by the young defensive core is why Fowler’s power-play minutes significantly diminished this season. And once the Ducks got Trouba, it meant that playing Fowler came at the expense of not playing one of those younger defensemen like Helleson or Zellweger, given LaCombe and Mintyukov have already established themselves as nightly fixtures.

And for a franchise that has shown it is beyond comfortable giving young players a chance to play? Building that young core ultimately led the Ducks down the path to where Fowler was expendable. Getting Trouba, who has one more year left on his deal after this season, was essentially the final push that allowed the Ducks to feel comfortable moving on. — Clark

With goaltending being a major problem for the Colorado Avalanche, could Mackenzie Blackwood be the solution?

The Avalanche acquired Blackwood and forward Givani Smith in a trade with the San Jose Sharks that sees goalie Alexandar Georgiev, forward Nikolai Kovalenko, a 2025 fifth-round pick and a 2026 second-round pick head to the Bay Area. The Avs also retained 14% of Georgiev’s salary.

How did both GMs fare in the trade? Let’s find out.

The Avalanche’s defensive structure ranks in the top 10 of fewest scoring chances allowed per 60 minutes and shots allowed per 60. Unfortunately, their save percentage as a team is second worst in the NHL.

That defensive zone disconnect is why changes needed to be made for an Avs team that’s fighting for a wild-card spot as mid-December draws closer — despite its status as a preseason Stanley Cup favorite.

But it’s also symptomatic of a larger problem with the Avs in that they’ve had issues building a consistently strong supporting cast around their core led by Nathan MacKinnon, Cale Makar and Mikko Rantanen.

Having that supporting cast is what helped them win a title in 2022. Lacking that cast is why they were knocked out of the first round a year later and lost in the second round last season.

Georgiev averaged 39 wins per season in his first two with the team. But that came with questions: Was Georgiev the sole reason he won so many games in Denver? Or was it the structure around him that led to his success?

All Avs GM Chris MacFarland needed was 18 games this season to answer those questions.

It started when Colorado traded Justus Annunen to the Nashville Predators to get Scott Wedgewood. But it became even clearer when Wedgewood’s first win came in relief of Georgiev on Dec. 3 — when the latter allowed four goals on eight shots in the Avs’ 5-4 win over the Buffalo Sabres.

Now the Avalanche are turning to Blackwood and hope he can steady the ship. His .911 save percentage is 12th among goalies with more than 10 games played, while his goals saved versus average is in the top 20.

Blackwood is not perfect, and there are questions about the newest Av:

Is he the answer for a team that has Stanley Cup aspirations? Is he different from the goalie who forced the New Jersey Devils to find alternatives when they made the playoffs in 2023? And while the Avs needed to make a move, was the price they paid to add Blackwood too much given he has never played in the postseason?

We’ll find out the answers to all of these in the coming weeks and months.

play

Kaapo Kakko’s goals from the 2024-25 season

Check out some of Kaapo Kakko’s goals with the New York Rangers after his trade to the Seattle Kraken.

Every move Sharks GM Mike Grier makes for the foreseeable future is about building a better tomorrow for the Sharks. The return package for Blackwood will play a role in those plans.

Go back to when Grier acquired Blackwood in 2023. The Sharks parted with a 2023 sixth-round pick to get him from the Devils. Now fast-forward to Monday, and the return Grier received goes well beyond the sixth-round pick he sent to the Devils.

And he still has two pending unrestricted free agent goalies on the roster.

Georgiev’s arrival will impact the Sharks at the NHL level and beyond. He will join a tandem with Vitek Vanecek for a team that came into Monday seven points behind the Avs for the final wild-card spot and seven points ahead of the Chicago Blackhawks for the NHL’s worst record.

Adding Georgiev gives the Sharks seven pending unrestricted free agents. It’s possible that the Sharks could attain additional draft capital ahead of the trade deadline if there’s a team seeking goaltending depth. That’s another reason getting the Avs to retain 14% of his salary was crucial.

All three of the Sharks’ retained salary slots are filled because of previous trades involving Brent Burns, Tomas Hertl and Erik Karlsson. It’s what makes the need for the Sharks to present their pending UFAs as affordable to playoff hopefuls even more crucial.

But where it gets more captivating is how the Sharks now have two experienced options in net, meaning they can take their time with developing top goalie prospect Yaroslav Askarov, who had a 1.96 goals-against average and a .927 save percentage in two games before he was returned to the AHL.

Kovalenko is another player who could also help the Sharks this season and possibly beyond. He gives the Sharks a ninth player younger than 25 on the roster, in a group that includes Macklin Celebrini, William Eklund, Mario Ferraro and Will Smith, among others. Kovalenko, who has four goals and eight points in 28 games, could possibly challenge for a top-nine role. He’s also a pending restricted free agent, which means the Sharks could look to sign him to a new deal or move on from him via another trade.

All in all, another tidy piece of business for Grier. — Clark

The New York Rangers traded defenseman Jacob Trouba to the Anaheim Ducks, ending a tense few months of speculation about their captain’s future.

The Ducks sent defenseman Urho Vaakanainen and a conditional 2025 fourth-round pick to the Rangers for Trouba. Anaheim takes on all of Trouba’s contract, which carries an $8 million average annual value against the salary cap through the 2025-26 season.

The Rangers will receive either the Ducks’ or the Detroit Red Wings’ fourth-round pick, depending on which one is lower in the draft order.

The marking period for this trade began on July 19, 2019. That’s when then-Rangers general manager Jeff Gorton signed defenseman Jacob Trouba to a seven-year, $56 million contract to avoid salary arbitration.

Despite being one of the league’s most effective defensemen at that point — which is why the Rangers acquired him from the Winnipeg Jets in the first place — many thought that Trouba’s $8 million annual cap hit was overcompensation, considering the bell curve of a physical defenseman’s effectiveness in the NHL. The Rangers certainly took that into account: That overcompensation bought them flexibility in the final two years of Trouba’s contract, which carried a no-movement clause from 2020-24 before switching to a 15-team no-trade clause.

That no-trade clause still gave Trouba some agency over his future, as the Rangers discovered last summer when his refusal to submit a list of approved teams early reportedly torpedoed a potential trade with the Detroit Red Wings. But it couldn’t protect him from the Rangers using their nuclear option, which is what ultimately led to Trouba’s trade to Anaheim.

Please recall when the Rangers placed forward Barclay Goodrow on waivers in June, clearing the last three years of his contract off their books when the San Jose Sharks claimed him in a prearranged move. There’s no question that GM Chris Drury pointed to that example and told Trouba, “This could happen to you.”

You could be on a rebuilding Chicago Blackhawks team that just fired their coach. Or the San Jose Sharks. Or the Red Wings, with whom you didn’t want to play last summer. Or shuffle back up to Canada, not as a Winnipeg Jet but as a Montreal Canadien. Such was the waiver wire.

Or Trouba could select from the potential trade destinations placed in front of him, waiving his no-trade clause for one of them.

With that, the captain of the New York Rangers is now a member of the Anaheim Ducks.

Part of this grade goes to the Rangers’ front office in 2019, when Drury was an assistant GM, for having the foresight to create this pressure point. And part of it goes to Drury, who exerted that pressure to move Trouba’s cap hit off the books, remove an ineffective defenseman from his blue line and send a shock to the system of a struggling team.

The Rangers are 13-10-1 this season. They’re in a wild card. But they’ve lost six games in regulation out of their past seven. Drury was so displeased with what he saw that he put out a memo to 31 other NHL teams telling them he was open for business and mentioning Trouba by name.

Trouba has been a liability all season. He’s in the negatives across the board analytically relative to his teammates, including a 47.5% expected goals percentage. He has just six assists in 24 games, skating to a minus-3. Even the one thing the Rangers used to depend on from Trouba — physicality — was down, as he averaged 4.87 hits per 60 minutes after averaging 7.81 last season.

Of course, it should be said that Drury basically made him a lame duck, and that has to impact his performance.

In the immediate term, the trade opens up ice time for Braden Schneider and Victor Mancini, two players the Rangers are eager to see develop.

(Vaakanainen, whom they received from Anaheim, is a spare at this point, and was a healthy scratch for the Ducks this season.)

But taking the long view, we’ve now seen the other shoe drop for the Rangers: Clearing Trouba’s salary allowed them to finally sign goalie Igor Shesterkin to his new contract worth $11.5 million against the salary cap — a record for NHL goalies. Which certainly alleviates one point of long-term planning stress for Drury and only increases this grade

Whether or not the roster shake-up goes beyond Trouba remains to be seen. Don’t forget, Chris Kreider’s name was in that Drury memo, too.

But getting Trouba off the books and off the ice was something the Rangers had been attempting for months. With more than a gentle nudge, he has sailed to the Pacific.

Nothing like trading your captain through pitiless means to get a locker room’s attention.

play

The highlight reel Mackenzie Blackwood is taking to the Avalanche

Check out some of Mackenzie Blackwood’s best saves with the Sharks as he gets traded to the Avalanche.

I don’t hate this from the Ducks’ perspective.

Trouba is a better defenseman than the majority of the blueliners on the Anaheim roster. That’s assuming some of his poor play was due to the Rangers basically standing in the doorway with his bags packed for six months, which will certainty weigh on a guy.

At least now he’s with a team that he begrudgingly picked, with a couple of former teammates (Ryan Strome and Frank Vatrano) and a general manager in Pat Verbeek who says kind things such as “on the ice, he competes every shift, leads by example and is a presence on the blue line every night.”

Verbeek also called him “a big part of our future success,” and hopefully that means as a mentor to young defensemen rather than signing Trouba until he’s 37 when his contract runs out after the 2025-26 season. The Ducks have up-and-comers such as Pavel Mintyukov, Olen Zellweger, Drew Helleson and Jackson LaCombe on the roster, with players such as Stian Solberg and Tristan Luneau in the pipeline. Trouba can be a “lead by example” type, having excelled offensively and defensively during his career. After six seasons in Winnipeg and six more in New York, he has seen some things.

Breaking News from Emily Kaplan

Download the ESPN app and enable Emily Kaplan’s news alerts to receive push notifications for the latest updates first. Opt in by tapping the alerts bell in the top right corner. For more information, click here.

It’s safe to say that Trouba is in decline at 30 years old. He might have been a liability with the Rangers, but the bar is set rather lower in Anaheim. This is an atrocious defensive team. The Ducks are giving up 3.14 expected goals against per 60 minutes at 5-on-5, last in the league and the only NHL team over three expected goals against on average this season. They earn only 45% of the shot attempts in a game, 31st in the NHL. No one gives up more high-danger shot attempts (13.5 per 60 minutes) than Anaheim — although please note that the Rangers were right behind them (13.1).

The Ducks have prioritized physicality, and Trouba can bring that. The idea that Anaheim can roll out Radko Gudas and Trouba on the same defense should have Western Conference opponents already reaching for the Advil.

They didn’t give up anything for him. Even if Vaakanainen was playing, which he wasn’t, the Ducks were dealing from a position of depth. The fourth-rounder is expendable, given they had two. The $8 million salary cap hit shouldn’t impact them much next season: While Mason McTavish will need a new deal this summer, Leo Carlsson’s big-ticket second contract won’t be until after Trouba’s expires.

Plus, if he finds his game in Anaheim and the Ducks aren’t in the playoff mix next season, they could always retain salary and flip Trouba at the 2026 trade deadline. He’s exactly the kind of defenseman who has value for contenders at the right price.

Verbeek said, “It’s rare you are able to acquire a player with Jacob’s experience, stature and ability.”

Despite this decline and the growing flaws in his game, that’s undoubtedly true, and especially for this compensation. The Ducks need more adults in the room. They landed themselves an NHL captain, who can hopefully find more effectiveness in a place where he’s wanted. — Wyshynski

In need of a change, defenseman David Jiricek found one Saturday when the Columbus Blue Jackets traded the former No. 6 pick to the Minnesota Wild.

The Wild received Jiricek and a 2025 fifth-round pick, with the Blue Jackets receiving a top-five protected 2025 first-round pick, a 2027 second-round pick, a 2026 third-round pick, a 2026 fourth-round pick and defenseman Daemon Hunt.

Last season allowed the Wild to draw two conclusions about the state of their defense.

The first was that they appear to have a legitimate franchise cornerstone in Brock Faber, who finished second in Calder Trophy voting. The second was that the team needed to figure out how to continue to get younger on the back end, especially with injuries ravaging a unit that had quite a few players — Zach Bogosian, Jonas Brodin, Jon Merrill and captain Jared Spurgeon — all older than 30.

That process began in 2021 when they used one of their two first-round picks to select Winnipeg Ice defenseman Carson Lambos. They acquired Faber in 2022 in the Kevin Fiala trade with the Los Angeles Kings. In June, they used their first-round pick (No. 12) to draft University of Denver defenseman Zeev Buium. Now, they have added Jiricek, the sixth pick in the 2022 draft.

Editor’s Picks

2 Related

As for what this all means for this season?

Much of that could depend upon Jiricek. Part of what made him available in the first place was the belief that he was unhappy with his role in Columbus. He was averaging 11:11 in six games while logging less than 10 minutes over what became his final three contests before he was sent to the AHL.

Jiricek will remain in the AHL, where he will use his time with the Wild’s affiliate to push for a role at the NHL level. Jiricek is a 6-foot-4 puck mover, and those traits have come through in the AHL, where he’s scored 15 goals and 60 points in 88 games. This season, he has two goals and three points in four games.

The Wild (15-4-4) were two points behind the Winnipeg Jets for the best record in the NHL and the Western Conference entering Saturday. They’re allowing the fewest goals per game in the NHL this season, the fewest high-danger scoring chances per 60 and rank in the top 10 in the fewest scoring chances allowed per 60.

Not only have they established consistency, but the Wild also have the depth to go with that continuity. Faber is one of three defensemen who have played in every game, while four of their defenseman have appeared in more than 16 games this season.

Maintaining that level means the Wild don’t have to be in a rush to call up Jiricek and can let him settle into their system. And if the Wild can remain in the hunt for a top seed, they’ve essentially added a one-time top-six pick for what will ultimately become a first-round selection that’s toward the bottom of the draft.

Moving on from a one-time top-10 pick such as Jiricek comes with the question about if a franchise has received or has come close to receiving a return of equal value.

It appears that Blue Jackets GM Don Waddell was able to achieve that by getting a sizable haul along with a defenseman who can play right now with Hunt.

Fantasy hockey essentials

At the time of the trade, the Blue Jackets (10-9-3) look as if they could go in a few directions this season. On Saturday, they were two points out of the final Eastern Conference wild-card spot while also being within five points of having the NHL’s worst record.

The fact Jiricek struggled to get minutes and was sent to the AHL before being traded shows that the Blue Jackets were comfortable with their dynamic in the interim. But how this could work out for them in the future is where it gets interesting.

Waddell’s time in charge of the Carolina Hurricanes saw the club rely upon the draft to build a roster that has since become one of the NHL’s perennial favorites to win the Stanley Cup. One of the ways the Hurricanes reached that destination was to have as many draft picks as possible.

With this trade, the Blue Jackets now have 27 draft picks over the next three seasons.

Another detail that could factor into the decision to move on from Jiricek is the defensive youth the Blue Jackets have on their NHL roster and in their farm system. Five of the seven defensemen on the Blue Jackets’ active roster are younger than 27. That does not include Hunt.

They also have youth in their system. They used one of their three first-round picks in 2021 to draft Corson Ceulemans. A year later, they used one of their two first-rounders to take Denton Mateychuk. Of course, the other player they drafted in the first round that year was Jiricek. They also used four of their six picks to draft defensemen in 2024, with the most notable being Charlie Elick, who went in the second round. — Clark