Rangers acquire Casey Wellman from Wild for Erik Christensen and 7th round pick

It looks like the Rangers have at least temporarily solved their surplus forward problem, as they have dealt Erik Christensen and a 7th round pick in 2012 to the Wild for Casey Wellman.

Christensen had been a spare part for the Rangers for a long time, and hadn’t played in a NHL game since December 17. The enigmatic and inconsistent center had once shown some chemsitry with Marian Gaborik, but that was short lived. His inconsistent effort quickly made him an afterthought in the Rangers organization.

Wellman is a 24 year old center who has played 41 games at the NHL level over the past three seasons, totaling four goals and nine assists for 13 points. Wellman was an undrafted free agent signed by the Wild after his senior season at UMass-Amherst, where he was a point-per-game player. Per Hockey Wilderness, it doesn’t appear that Wellman got a legitimate shot at the top six in Minnesota, and spent most of his time playing with Brad Staubitz on the third and fourth line.

Christensen was in his last year of a two year contract that paid him $925,000 per season. Wellman is in the final year of a two-way contract that pays him $850,500 at the NHL level. Wellman will be a RFA at the end of his contract.

Rangers Acquire Bouchard From Caps For Kundratek

After a relatively quiet day in Rangerland, Glen Sather made a splash, sending defense prospect Tomas Kundratek to the Washington Capitals in exchange for RW Francois Bouchard. Kundratek, the Rangers third round pick in the 2008 draft, has two assists in seven games this year, with two PIMs and a -1 rating. In 79 career games with the CT Whale/Hartford Wolfpack, Kundratek had a line of 2-12-14, with 44 PIMs and a -1 rating.

Bouchard was a second round pick by the Caps in 2006, selected 19 spots ahead of Artem Anisimov. Bouchard, like Kundratek, has never made it to the NHL thus far in his short professional career. In nine games with the Hershey Bears, Bouchard has no points, eight PIMs and a -4 rating.

Last year, Kundratek was one of the more highly regarded Rangers prospects, and was even a dark horse to make this year’s club. However, after a lackluster camp, Kundratek’s struggles continued with the CT Whale. In some Twitter exchanges with Mitch Beck, it appears that Kundratek had fallen within the depth chart, and found himself as a healthy scratch in more than a few games with the Whale. Players like Stu Bickel, Tim Erixon, and Jyri Niemi appeared to have passed him on the depth chart.

As for Bouchard, from what is available on the internet, it does not appear that he is an NHL talent. He was Washington’s #17 ranked prospect, and has a good offensive skill set. His biggest flaws seem to be skating quickness, work ethic (although this seems to have resolved itself) and strength. At 6’1/195 lbs, Bouchard isn’t exactly weak, but it appears he is knocked off the puck too often.

This move was likely made to address the unbalanced nature of the Whale roster. Prior to this trade, the Whale had 12 forwards and 9 defensemen. Now, they will have 13 forwards and 8 defenseman.

Rangers Acquire Andreas Thurreson For Brodie Dupont

In a minor move that came in the wake of the Brad Richards deal, the Rangers traded restricted free agent forward Brodie Dupont to the Nashville Predators in exchange for RW Andreas Thurreson, also a restricted free agent. Thurreson, 23, is 6’1″ 211 lb, and played more of a third line role for the Milwaukee Admirals (Nashville’s AHL farm team). He has averaged about 30 points per season and 30 PIMs during his five year stint in the AHL. In 25 NHL games spread out over the previous two seasons, Thurreson has a goal, two assists, 6 PIMs, and a -6 rating.

As for Dupont, it looked like the writing was on the wall for him. With the recent signings of Ryan Bourque, Carl Hagelin, Dale Weise, John Mitchell, Chad Kolarik, and Jason Wilson; Dupont was on the outside looking in, even for a spot as a top-nine forward in CT. Some will say that Dupont should have been with the club, but if that were true, wouldn’t he have played more than one game with the Rangers over the past four years with the organization?

Rangers Trade Grachev To St. Louis

In a bit of a shocking deal, the Rangers have dealt Evgeny Grachev, one of their top prospects, to St. Louis in exchange for a third round pick (#72 overall – used on Steve Fogarty). It is very surprising to see the Rangers give up on a 21 year old Grachev so soon. Grachev showed major progress this year in the AHL, and was a dark horse to make the roster this year. Grachev left the OHL early to play professionally in an attempt to jump-start his career. He may have been rushed, but the talent is definitely there.

Don’t forget to follow below for live blogging of the rest of the draft.

Draft Day Two Open Thread

The Rangers took J.T. Miller with the 15th overall selection last night, and have three more selections in this draft (#106, #134, #136). The selections they would have had were:

#45 – to Calgary for Tim Erixon – Calgary selects Markus Granlund
#57 – Washington’s pick, acquired by the Rangers from Carolina for Bobby Sanguinetti, sent to Calgary for Tim Erixon – Calgary selects Tyler Wotherspoon
#76 – to Florida for Bryan McCabe - Florida selects Logan Shaw.
#166 – to San Jose for Jody Shelley - San Jose selects Daniil Sobchenko.
#196 – to Phoenix for Anders Eriksson -Phoenix selects Zac Larraza.

I’ll be live blogging the rest of the draft, which begins at 11:00am EST this morning. I’ll make sure to cover who was drafted with the picks the Rangers would have had.

Rangers Picks:
#72 – Steven Fogarty, C from Edina High School (in MN)
#106 – Michael St. Croix, C from Edmonton Oil Kings (WHL)
#134 – Shane McColgan, RW from Kelowna Rockets (WHL)
#136 – Sam Noreau, D from Baie-Comeau Drakkar (QMJHL)
#172 – Peter Ceresnak, D from Slovakia

Trades:
Calgary trades Robyn Regehr, Ales Kotalik, and a 2012 2nd round pick to Buffalo for Chris Butler, Paul Byron.
Florida trades #47 to San Jose for #59 and a 2012 3rd round pick.
Vancouver trades #60 to Minnesota for #71 and #101.
Columbus trades Nikita Filatov to Ottawa for #66.
Rangers trade Evgeny Grachev to St. Louis for #72.
Islanders trade Bruno Gervais to Tampa Bay for future considerations.
Kings trade #170 and 2012 3rd to NSH for #82.
Rangers trade 2012 6th round pick for #172.

NHL Trades Abound!

The past few minutes have been very exciting, and NHL GMs have been incredibly busy. There have been two has been one confirmed trade and one trade waiting in the wings:

Trade One
The Flyers trade Jeff Carter to Columbus for Jakub Voracek, a 2011 1st round pick (#8 overall) and a 2011 3rd round pick.

Trade Two
The Flyers have traded Kris Versteeg to Florida. Details pending.

Trade Three Two
The Flames have asked Robyn Regehr to waive his no movement clause for a trade to Buffalo.

Note: These have been broken by a few sources on Twitter.

Update: The second trade has been refuted by Bob McKenzie.

Update 4:00pm: The Flyers appear to have traded Mike Richards to the LA Kings for a package including Brayden Schenn and Wayne Simmonds and a 2nd round pick. This one still needs to be confirmed. This has been confirmed.

It’s amazing, my first reaction is to wonder what the Flyers are doing. It’s like they are rebuilding their entire team, but they didn’t need to. I didn’t think they would trade both Richards and Carter, let alone on the same day!

They certainly got a good haul for both players, but wow.

Update 4:20pm: Ok, now that the dust has settled, let’s take a step back. Clearly the locker room in Philly was a disaster, and something needed to be done. Each deal separately is a win/win for both sides.

To sum it up for the Flyers, they lose Carter and Richards. They gain Voracek, Schenn, Simmonds, and about $10 million in cap space to sign Bryzgalov. They also gain a top-ten pick in this year’s draft, which will also help them down the road. They may suffer a bit this year, but the Flyers are now loaded up for the future. This is now Claude Giroux’s and James van Riemsdyk’s team.

Rangers Acquire (And Sign) Tim Erixon From Calgary

In a bit of shocking news, the Rangers have acquired Tim Erixon and a 2011 5th round pick from Calgary in exchange for Roman Horak and two 2011 second round picks.  Erixon, Calgary’s first round pick in 2009 (23rd overall), had until 5pm today to reach an agreement on an entry level deal with the Flames.  Calgary, realizing that a deal could not be reached, dealt the 20 year old defenseman to the Rangers around 4pm.  If Calgary did not make this trade, they would have received the #53 overall pick as compensation for not signing Erixon.  The #53 pick set market value for Erixon, even if he would have been an instant top-10 pick in this draft due to the lack of depth in this year’s class.

Erixon is 6’2″ and 190 lbs.  He completed his second season in the Swedish Elite Leagues, finishing with a line of 5-19-24 in 48 games.  In the playoffs, he finished with a line 3-5-8 in 18 games.  The name might sound familiar, as he is former Ranger Jan Erixon’s son.  Erixon projects out to be a top-four defenseman, who is a fluid skater and just smooth in almost every aspect of the game.  He won’t stand out, but as a defenseman, that’s probably a good thing.  He could chip in offensively too, as the SEL is a notoriously low scoring league.

The Rangers have until 5pm to sign Erixon, or they get nothing in return as compensation.  Expect a deal to be announced shortly.

Update 4:03pm - Erixon has been signed to an entry level deal.

Update 4:20pm - Press release is after the jump

Read more »

Rangers Trade Ethan Werek To Phoenix

In a bit of a surprising trade, the Rangers have traded 2009 second round pick Ethan Werek to the Phoenix Coyotes in exchange for center Oscar Lindberg.  Lindberg was Phoenix’s 2010 second round pick, and has been playing in the Swedish Elite League.  This year in the SEL, Lindberg picked up 14 points (5-9-14) in 41 games.  Lindberg was the #10 prospect in the Coyotes system (per HockeysFuture), and is more of a defensive minded center who excels in the face off circle (a point of weakness for the Rangers).

Werek has more offensive upside, as he put together a fine season with the Kingston Frontenacs of the OHL, with a line of 24-28-52 in 51 games.  Werek has had several injuries throughout his career in Juniors, and that may have been a reason for concern on the Rangers part.  It’s a bit early to give up on Werek, despite his injuries.  He has a ton of offensive skill, and while the trade for is of second round picks, it looks like Werek has more skill, but will be more of a project.

Lindberg is much more polished than Werek, and appears ready to make the jump to the AHL next season.  From a business perspective, there could be two reasons the Rangers made this trade.  First, Werek could have asked for too much, which I doubt.  Second, and more likely, is that the Rangers are coming up on the 50 contract maximum for next season, and Werek was due an entry level deal.  Lindberg, since he is not playing in Juniors, does not require a contract right away, and the Rangers will still retain his rights.

This is another trade with Phoenix, but the first where we can really say we don’t know if there was a winner or a loser.  Considering the track record of trades with the ‘Yotes (Rozisval/Wolski, Korpikoski/Lisin, etc…), that may be a good thing.  This is one of those trades that we won’t be able to evaluate for another few years.  There are clearly reasons why the Rangers lost faith in Werek, be it injuries or business.  Lindberg is supposed to be more of a sure thing to make the NHL, and has been SEL’s best face-off man for a while now.  That is an area where the Rangers desperately need help.

The Inevitable Occurs: Rangers Get McCabe

Via Bob McKenzie, the Rangers have acquired Bryan McCabe from the Panthers for the low, low price of Tim Kennedy and a third round pick. Larry Brooks confirmed it. In 48 games with Florida, he’s got a 5-17-22 line and is a +3 for a team with a -11 goal differential overall.

McCabe, 35, missed a month with a broken jaw a little earlier this year, but he’s been back for just over a week now. We heard the two sides had a deal in place prior to the injury, so it’s not a surprise that they consummated a trade before Monday’s deadline. McCabe will be a free agent after the season, and his cap hit for the rest of the year is a little over $1.3M according to CapGeek. I believe the Rangers still have about $3.8M in wiggle room remaining (apologies for the uncertainty).

It’s hard not to absolutely love this deal. McCabe gives the Rangers exactly what they need, and that’s a veteran, left-handed defenseman with experience running the power play, and they did so without giving up a core piece a) off the NHL roster, or b) for the future. New York still has a first and two second round picks at their disposal. It’s unclear if he’ll be uniform in time for tomorrow’s game, but they really could use him with Marc Staal out. Either way, bravo. Great trade for the good guys.

Update: Michael Del Zotto’s been sent back to Connecticut to make room for McCabe. (h/t Bleeding All Blue)

As Voros Gets Waived, Looking Back At Voros-Eminger Trade

With Bob McKenzie of TSN, among others, reporting today that Aaron Voros has been put on waivers, I thought it would be fitting to look back at the trade the Rangers made on July 9, 2010.  New York traded Aaron “The People’s Champ” Voros and prospect Ryan Hillier to Anaheim in exchange for Steve Eminger. This was one of those under the radar type trades that few think much of when they happen, but sometimes mean a lot to a hockey club.

The thought process for Sather had to be that Voros had no role on the team and bringing in Eminger could potentially provide the Rangers with a stop-gap defender until some of their defensive prospects were ready.

A look at their numbers:

Eminger 49 GP 1G 3A -8 22PIM

Voros     12 GP 0G 0A -4 43PIM

If Eminger gave the Rangers anything it was going to be an easy win for the New York.  Obviously you can see that Voros has given the Ducks less than nothing, and has missed the last 21 games with an orbital bone fracture he sustained in a fight.  Nice to see Voros and Rick DiPietro have something in common.  Before someone asks, no the Rangers should not claim him, even if Boogaard is out for the year.  Players like Kris Newbury are more effective than Voros ever will be, so stay away.

On Eminger’s side of the ledger, despite scaring many of us, including myself, with his atrocious preseason that saw more injuries than quality play, Eminger has made himself a key cog for the young defense, turning it into a resounding victory for Sather.

I have been pleasantly surprised at how well Eminger has played over the totality of the season.  During a crucial part of the year, when Rozsival was first injured, it was Eminger who stepped in and filled that void very well.  I know for many Rangers fans it is easy to overlook that because it was just Rozsival, but at that point Rozi had been playing very good hockey for the club and having someone fill a top four role is not an easy task.

It would easy to focus on the fact that he has been scratched the last four games, but that for me is a product of other defenders rising and the Rangers trying to figure out what to do with Michael Del Zotto, then to Eminger himself.  There is no question there has been some slippage in the quality of Eminger’s play compared to early in the year, but his benching, for me, has been unjustified by performance overall.  I expect that Eminger will be back in the lineup for New York on Friday, and Del Zotto will likely be back in Hartford with the Whale

I find it reassuring to look back at this deal as the trade deadline approaches and see that Sather has done a very good job with trades the past few years.  Free agency for the most part is still awful, but feel confident as the deadline approaches that Sather will keep an eye on the big picture.