Sportsnet’s initial trade board has listed a pair of Rangers potentially available at this year’s trade deadline. This year has two deadlines, one before the roster freeze for the 2026 Winter Olympics, and another at the actual March 6th trade deadline. The Rangers are in free fall, having lost 8 of their last 9 and giving up 30 goals in their last 5 games. This is a bad team and the Rangers, without their two best players will likely be sellers as they currently occupy the basement in the Eastern Conference.
Pending UFA Artemi Panarin tops the list of Rangers potentially available at the deadline, which has been discussed a lot this season. With the Rangers in the bottom-five in the NHL in terms of points percentage, it’s a foregone conclusion that Panarin will be asked to waive his no-move clause to facilitate a trade. It’s not if, it’s when. Trading Panarin has the potential to bring back a good prospect and a 1st round pick.
The other player on the list is Vincent Trocheck, who we covered here last week. Trocheck is a 60-70 point 2C with 3 years remaining on his contract at a bargain $5.625 million cap hit. Trocheck was a solid signing for Chris Drury and the Rangers, but it’s best to trade a player a year too early rather than a year too late. With Panarin likely bringing back futures, the asking price for Trocheck will probably be a young NHLer or two.
There are likely other Rangers potentially available–Alexis Lafreniere and Braden Schneider come to mind–but as of now, they haven’t made the big board(s) yet.