Quick Rangers trade deadline updates: Tarasenko unlikely; Hartford scratches; Scouting

With a little over a week until the NHL trade deadline, we have some little tidbits of information for quick Rangers trade deadline updates. Since there is some trade deadline fatigue, instead of putting out one post per piece of information, we are going to summarize the ones that don’t require their own post each day.

1. Vladimir Tarasenko is unrealistic for the Rangers

Many want Vladimir Tarasenko, and for good reason. But he likely will not be a Ranger this deadline, and you can thank the CBA for that. In particular, any player that was on a team’s reserve list at a retained salary, which Tarasenko was last year, cannot be re-acquired in a new retained salary transaction by that team for 12 months.

This means the Rangers cannot trade for Tarasenko at a retained salary. They would need to take on the full $5 million in salary. To do that, they’d need to either ignore all other roster targets like 3C, or they’d need to move salary to make it work. Neither are likely.

Tarasenko will not be a Ranger this season.

2. Pay attention to Hartford

It’s not just NHL scratches that matter this week. Pay attention to the Hartford Wolf Pack scratches and rumors that follow. Case in point, Karl Henriksson is not playing tonight for the Wolf Pack.

Henriksson may be a one-off here, but if we are to pay attention to NHL scratches, the same goes for AHL scratches. The Rangers are more likely to deal from Hartford than they are from draft picks or the NHL roster.

3. Rangers scouting Arizona too

The Rangers were scouting Arizona last night, to no one’s surprise. Four names to watch: Jason Zucker, Nick Bjugstad, Troy Stecher, and Travis Dermott. They fit the Rangers needs to varying degrees.

This means the Rangers have been confirmed to be heavily scouting Arizona, Seattle, Nashville, and the Flyers. It’s likely more, but those are the ones confirmed.

Make of that what you will.