The New York Rangers are in an embarrassing and disappointing season. They range from winning the president’s trophy to the Eastern Conference finals to missing the playoffs altogether. The team isn’t enough to win the advantage of the Stanley Cup last season, and this season proves more that changes are needed to make them legitimate contenders in this league. General Manager Chris Drury will have to make a lot of decisions in the offseason, which could impact the team’s next few years, which could mean we’ve seen the last game of the longest Rangers at the moment.
Chris Kreider has been trading rumors all season long. It began in late November, when Drury sent memos to all other teams saying he was open to business, especially the names of Kreider and former captain Jacob Trouba in the memo. His name then began to appear in rumors of the 2025 trade deadline deadline, but he did nothing due to his season and injuries. Now, with Drury hoping to change the roster, Kreider may be the big name for this offseason, and in this article we’ll look at some of the pros and cons of potential deals.
Pro: Create much-needed cap space
Rangers are expected to have more than $8.4 million in cap space this summer, according to Puckpedia. While this seems like a good start, they have two players to sign and they may take up much of the space: Will Cuylle and K’andre Miller. Both players will be restricted in free agents, and Cuylle’s breakthrough season, Miller may want a long-term deal worth more than the $38.72 million he’s currently making, which could make the Rangers have to use most of the block space for both players. They will have to clear some space to make other moves, and the only player on the team who makes money and is not fully traded is Kreider.
The other four other top-paid forwards on the team, Artemi Panarin ($11.6 million), Mika Zibanejad ($8.5 million), JT Miller ($8 million) and Vincent Trocheck ($5.6 million) all have all trade-free terms into next season. Kreider made $6.5 million in the next two seasons, with only 15 teams having no trade lists. The Rangers can hand him over to 16 other teams without having to ask him first, which is probably the path they will take during the offseason. They need to clear the hat space with new deals from Alexis Lafreniere and Igor Shesterkin. Since the aforementioned Cuylle and Miller need new deals, they don’t have room at all unless the players are moved out, and Kreider looks like that player.
CON: Drury will sell lows
One of the main reasons Kreider hasn’t moved this season is that he’s dealing with multiple injuries and has been declining seasonally. After scoring at least 35 goals in the past three seasons, he has only 22 goals and 30 points in 68 games this season. It’s a huge drop, and while he’s only 34 years old, he doesn’t have much time in his career and the team may think he’s getting the risk. No one expected him to have the best season of his career after he was 30, but now he is older and has been troubled by injuries this season, Drury will sell low on him if he is to switch him.
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At best, maybe Drury might get several transit picks or a low-end prospect for him, but if he becomes the most important player in the market in 2020, they will trade him back after the 2020 trade deadline, that won’t be the same as they did. Maybe the deal can still be seen as a win because they will clean up the hat space to take other moves, but given what he has done in his career, you still want to see a player like Cred. He is a validated playoff performer and maybe a team will see that and pay more for him, but it seems unlikely that at the moment that anything valuable for the 34-year-old who will have to recover from multiple injuries through this offseason.
Pro: Will be a major locker room reorganization
Kreider has been a Ranger for 13 seasons and has been with the team in many ups and downs. He was there when they competed in the Stanley Cup finals and multiple Eastern Conference finals in their early years. He has been a leader in reconstruction here and received a postponement in 2020 as part of the next team to compete for the Stanley Cup. Although he was never appointed captain, fans always thought he was the leader of the locker room. Now, after this season, it’s clear that maybe he’s not a real leader after all, and despite his injury, he seems to have been checked out for most of the season along with some of the other “leaders” on this team. It is now clear that the Rangers have no real leader and the reorganization of the locker room is necessary.
As mentioned before, unless a trade is required, all other high-paying players will be here. Kreider is the only one who has no control over whether Drury trades him. Dealing with him will be a reshuffle of the large number of locker rooms this team desperately needs. It sends the message to other players, and if Drury can trade the longest player, then one of them may be the next, if they don’t start performing the way they should. Perhaps trading him gives Drury room for another player who could become a future leader. Either way, it will take the locker room reshuffle to move into next season, and Kreider is that reshuffle.
If the Wanderer finally moved Kreider this summer, it would be hard to see him go because he was with the Rangers and all the memories he had provided. When his career ended, his number is likely to end up being retired, but now it seems that this offseason is time for them to finally leave him. They need to clear the hat space and get the young people forward. Kreider can do this, but if it does happen, it is indeed the end of the Wanderer era.
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