First and foremost, let me get something out of the way off the bat: I don’t believe the Rangers should trade Chris Kreider.
Chris Kreider is a player in the prime of his career, posting arguably his best individual season to date and has developed a special chemistry with Mika Zibanejad, allowing both to flourish under coach David Quinn.
As I’ve said on the podcast numerous times, if the goal is to sign Artemi Panarin this off-season, you have to sell him on something with some immediacy. Panarin could want to be a Ranger as bad as we want to be fans of the team, but star players aren’t going to sign long-term deals with a new team that can’t be competitive within the first three years of that deal. Millions of dollars are worth millions regardless of what team you play for, so you have to sell Panarin on something.
And the Rangers can absolutely do that with Kreider and Zibanejad (plus the kids), and still move someone like Kevin Hayes for a hefty fee at the trade deadline.
Plus, a Chris Kreider extension like the one mentioned by Larry Brooks is incredibly beneficial to the Rangers long-term plan. Would it be great if you could somehow convince him to go two years shorter on a deal and only be on the hook for Kreider through age-32? Sure, but that’s not how it works (most times) in the NHL. I’d gladly take Kreider for a year too long as opposed to letting him go in a rebuilding-type trade. At some point, you have to stop trading established players for picks and prospects and start developing what you have with the veterans you want on your roster long-term.
Chris Kreider can be that type of player.
However…
I would trade Chris Kreider in a deal that lands the Rangers Jacob Trouba.
“Hey idiot, there’s no way the Jets would trade Trouba. They’re in the heart of their window now! It doesn’t make any sense for them! Don’t be stupid, Greg.”
First of all, no need to call me names. That’s hurtful.
Second, there’s actually some logic behind this. Allow me to show you the path I’ve constructed in this hypothetical.
There’s a lot to digest from the Jets’ CapFriendly page, so stay with me.
For starters and most obvious, both Patrik Laine and Kyle Connor will see their Entry Level Contracts expire, meaning both are due handsome raises this summer. Laine’s is likely to surpass $8M annually (at least), with Connor’s number likely coming in the William Nylander-range. Right there, you’re looking at a new $15M cap hit on two of your best players, eating into your projected cap space of $23.9M this off-season.
Those two moves alone will leave the Jets with a roughly (again, if Laine’s number isn’t higher than $8M annually, which it easily could be) $8.9M to address Trouba’s final year of RFA status, whether the team wants to retain reliable defender Tyler Myers as he prepares to enter unrestricted free agency and still save some money for the possibility of a Josh Morrissey extension after the 19-20 season.
The cap situation for the Jets could become a little less complicated if they were able to move defenseman Dmitry Kulikov and his $4.33M cap hit, but that alone is complicated by Kulikov’s modified no-trade clause that allows him to block a deal to six teams. And while an acquiring team would only be on the hook for one more year of Kulikov’s deal, generally speaking, he simply hasn’t been good at any point during the last three years. While his relative teammate metrics have improved this year, it comes at a time where the Jets are doing everything they can to hide him in their line-up, skating a career-low 13:54 on average while never playing against an opposing team’s top six forwards.
As friend of the podcast Murat Ates has said multiple times to us, the Jets are constantly missing that final top-six piece that can put them over the edge. It’s why they went out an acquired Paul Stastny last year and why they’re always connected to the top rental forwards on the trade market this year, including Kevin Hayes.
There’s also the lingering elephant in the room regarding whether Jacob Trouba wants to remain in Winnipeg long-term. He notoriously held out as long as the aforementioned Nylander did a couple years ago in an effort to secure a bigger contract from Winnipeg, only to settle on a two-year bridge deal. And he declined to agree to a long-term extension with the team this previous off-season.
With a payday that will take Trouba’s one-year commitment beyond $6M this year, it might be time the Jets try to use Trouba as a piece to again address their top six in a meaningful way this summer without having to commit long-term dollars to guys like Hayes, Artemi Panarin, Wayne Simmonds and others. Taking Trouba’s dollar commitment off the payroll allows the team to bring back Myers, extend Laine/Connor and address a top six hole without the long-term commitment.
And it’s not to suggest Kreider-for-Trouba would be the end-all of the deal. In all likelihood, the Rangers would have to add to it, and this is now a team who is loaded with defensive upside prospects. There’s a deal to be worked out between the two teams, especially when we also consider the additional assets the Rangers are likely to acquire for Hayes, Mats Zuccarello and (to a much lesser extent) Adam McQuaid at this year’s deadline.
“Hold up, hold up. Haven’t you been saying that there’s no reason for the Rangers to pursue Panarin if Kreider isn’t on the roster?”
Yes and no. My point about pursuing Panarin, which our guy Fitz echoed again on Twitter, is that the Rangers need to sell Panarin on something more than just playing in New York.
Yes, NYC is a huge draw to potential free agents, and seems to be the apple in the eye of Panarin. But star talent in the heart of their prime can get $10M+ from any number of teams, many of which are much closer to winning a Stanley Cup than the Rangers currently find themselves. If you’re veteran core next year is Kreider/Zibanejad/Panarin, with a wave of kids crashing ashore like Filip Chytil, Vitali Kravtsov, Lias Andersson and the smorgasbord of defensive options the team has stockpiled, you can see the vision.
Trouba is a similar kind of player. A Trouba long-term extension is easily going to be more expensive than a Kreider long-term extension, but Trouba more readily fills a need for the Rangers they won’t be able to fill with the players currently in the system. Devour the K’Andre Miller hype as much as you want this year and the years to come, but it would be a stunning development for him to ever reach the ceiling Jacob Trouba has already reached. A top pairing of Skjei-Trouba is something you can actually build a long-term defensive foundation with, and something you can easily sell to Panarin as the building block of a Cup contender, all while he gets to play alongside Zibanejad up top with Chytil/Kravtsov potentially playing the other wing.
Trouba is something the Rangers can sell to Panarin, even more so than Kreider is.
It’s a deal that will never happen before this year’s deadline, but it isn’t that far-fetched of an idea before free agency begins this summer.
Again, I am 100% on board with keeping Kreider long-term and offering him a new extension this summer before he hits free agency. The New York Rangers can once again regain competency with Kreider anchored as a leader of this team.
But if Trouba is on the table, buddy, there’s a partnership to be found there.
Author: Greg Kaplan
Greg Kaplan is a man of mystery. Did he write this? No. Was he asked to write this? Yes. But did he write this article? Maybe, do you like it?