Rick Nash Has Been Traded

[text_output]Well, that’s three.

Nick Holden was first, followed by Michael Grabner, and now the biggest domino has fallen.

Rick Nash is officially a Boston Bruin. In return, the Rangers have brought in Ryan Spooner, Matt Beleskey (but only 50% of his contract), prospect Ryan Lindgren and a 2018 first round pick. The Rangers also retained 50% of Rick Nash’s remaining salary to make the Bruins cap compliant.

We have a lot to discuss here, so why don’t we get right to it.[/text_output][image type=”circle” float=”none” src=”2270″ alt=”” href=”” title=”” info_content=”” lightbox_caption=”” id=”” class=”aligncenter” style=””][text_output]For starters, what a fantastic haul the Rangers were able to get for two months of Rick Nash. As Drew Way mentioned on our emergency podcast, Lindgren and the first round pick would’ve been viewed as fair, even if you personally felt a little underwhelmed by it.

Lindgren is a big, defense-first defender who is serving a leading role on the Minnesota Golden Gophers blue line. Nobody will confuse Lindgren as Ryan McDonagh 2.0, but he does project as an NHL player and possesses the ceiling to serve as a middle pairing defender if he continues on his current development track. Like we did with Yegor Rykov, if you want to evaluate Lindgren’s stock in the prospect pool, he’d likely be a late first round draft pick/early second round draft pick if he became draft eligible this year.

Now, there was chatter on Twitter today that the Rangers weren’t doing themselves any favors by trading for yet another defensive prospect. They’ve now acquired Rob O’Gara for Holden, Rykov for Grabner and Lindgren.

Here’s the thing: don’t pay attention to what position the players you acquire back in trade play when they’re at least a year away from the NHL, which is the case for both Rykov and Lindgren. Jeff Gorton and his scouting team had a list of prospects that interest them from the Bruins, and in their mind, they acquired the best talent available that they could.

It would be fantastic if both Rykov and Lindgren one day served a significant role on the Rangers defense. However, the Rangers #1 priority this deadline period was acquiring talent that allowed them to build their prospect base. Having a deep pool of prospects to work with helps the parent club not just by having skilled players that can one day play for the Rangers, but skilled players the Rangers can turn into other assets via trade. The Rangers don’t plan to rebuild forever, and if they see an opportunity to add a talent via trade, they’re once again building a deep pool to deal from.

Admittedly, the chatter about Lindgren being a defender died down once it was revealed that Ryan Spooner was part of the return package.

Think of Spooner as J.T. Miller lite. He’s a skilled offensive player who has had success playing center, but is capable of playing the wing just as easily. However, he’s going to struggle defensively if you don’t properly shelter his deployments. To the Bruins credit, that’s exactly what they did, and Spooner was on a 50+ point pace this season as a result. He’s a strong middle six forward option, and if he’s your third line center, you have yourself a deep group of down the middle players, creating depth throughout the line-up.

Now, it’s not all rainbows and sunshine with Spooner. The Rangers are now presented with an even more complicated summer if an additional move isn’t made before the deadline.

Spooner is an RFA after this season, joining Miller, Kevin Hayes, Brady Skjei, Jimmy Vesey and John Gilmour as players facing decisions this off-season. We’ve discussed at length about the looming decision the team could be facing regarding Miller and Hayes, so no need to go into too much detail there.

However, the presence of Spooner does change things slightly. Miller’s and Spooner’s games are similar enough that if the Rangers were already thinking about shopping Miller for the right package, they could feel like they already have his long-term replacement in place. At the same time, they can easily have those same conversations about Spooner, though the return is likely to be much lighter.

Again, the Rangers should be able to afford all of their RFAs without making additional trades, which include significant raises for Hayes, Miller, Spooner and Skjei. But, if the Rangers decide to move one of their pending RFAs, the discussions surrounding Miller and Spooner will be incredibly interesting moving forward.

Personally, I’d still be listening closely on Miller. Again, not that I want the Rangers to trade Miller. I just think he will bring back the most in return and would prioritize Hayes first, and with Spooner’s presence on the team, the Rangers are already a step closer to filling that offensive hole from within.

In regards to Beleskey, I just view him as a number. He’s likely going to be a fixture in Hartford during his two years under contract, serving as a roughly $875k cap hit. If he does play for the Rangers, he’s not going to see time above the fourth line. The Rangers enjoyed the extra assets (Spooner) to take Beleskey’s cap hit off the Bruins hands.

This package also serves, yet again, as a way for the Rangers to remind other teams interested in Ryan McDonagh just what that price is going to be. In each trade thus far, Jeff Gorton has raised the bar. Holden’s return led to a higher Grabner return, which led to a higher Nash return, which should lead to a higher McDonagh return. Gorton not only has played this market nearly perfectly, but he’s seemingly traded away his assets in proper order.

At the end of the day, I don’t know how you can be angry about this return for the Rangers. Spooner presents the Rangers with an intriguing piece that can help immediately, the team now owns two first round picks and could have more coming if McDonagh does get flipped.

Jeff Gorton is batting 1.000 so far during the lead-up to the deadline.

And I don’t think he’s done just yet.[/text_output]