Within the risk-averse NHL, the Rangers and Canucks determined it was higher to roll the cube than to simply accept their new regular as playoff outsiders.
It is a breath of recent air.
Even figuring out that the J.T. Miller-Elias Pettersson saga had turn out to be untenable — admitted as a lot by Canucks president Jim Rutherford — the package deal that the Canucks in the end settled on carries lots of danger for the group.
It carries lots of danger for the Rangers as properly.
Right here is the potential danger — and reward — of the Canucks and Rangers’ swap.
The Danger
The Canucks did one thing that groups should not do — traded one of the best participant, who additionally occurs to be a real prime middle, and bought again a thriller field within the course of.
The Rangers additionally did one thing you are not presupposed to do — they acquired an ageing participant on the improper aspect of 30 in the course of a down season on a long-term contract. They usually gave up on a promising 25-year-old middle who has confirmed he could be a 20-goal scorer within the NHL. And whilst this transfer probably makes the group higher this season, it might not make them higher with sufficient time left to make a distinction.
In the meantime, that 25-year-old middle, Filip Chytil, hasn’t appeared like the identical participant since struggling a concussion that price him 72 regular-season video games and a part of the playoffs final 12 months. Vancouver is banking on him to search out the a part of his sport the place accidents have been stolen over the previous two seasons.
The pink flags are waving. So, what offers?
The Reward
Rangers common supervisor Chris Drury has been actively searching for to remake the core of his group for the reason that eventual Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers eradicated New York in six video games final spring.
For the reason that season began, he is dealt defenseman Jacob Trouba and winger Kaapo Kakko, acquired and prolonged defenseman Will Borgen, and now traded Chytil in a deal for Miller.
Miller, a former 100-point participant who’s notoriously difficult for top-line facilities to match up in opposition to, could possibly be the participant the Rangers have been lacking within the 2024 playoffs.
For the Canucks, their hand was pressured by the Miller-Pettersson feud spilling into the general public sphere. That mentioned, there may be an upside within the gamers they acquired. The true reward was the top-13 protected first-round decide the Rangers despatched — offering Vancouver with the ammunition they wanted to make a second trade Friday night time that introduced in pending unrestricted free agent defenseman Marcus Pettersson from Pittsburgh to bolster their back-end.
As of Feb. 1, two groups have been on the surface wanting in, and neither thought of that acceptable.
