Rangers put Chris Kreider, Jacob Trouba on trade block; recall Brett Berard and Matt Rempe
TARRYTOWN - Brett Berard was putting the finishing touches on his pregame suit when his cell phone started buzzing on Sunday.
It was Rangers assistant general manager Ryan Martin, who informed the 22-year-old forward prospect that he wouldn't be playing for AHL Hartford that afternoon. Instead, he'd be traveling to New York to prepare for his NHL debut on Monday night.
The first person he relayed the news to was his father, David, followed by his mother, Lynne, and younger brother, Brady.
"I tried to call the three most important people in my life," Berard said following Monday's morning. "They've been with me my whole journey. I definitely owe it to them, so it was pretty cool to hear their voices. My mom had a couple tears."
Berard's family, girlfriend and a group of friends from his hometown in East Greenwich, Rhode Island will be making the trip to see him take the ice at Madison Square Garden against the St. Louis Blues, where he'll be tasked with replacing veteran forward Chris Kreider and infusing the lineup with the speed and hustle he's known for.
"That's my game, and that's what I'm gonna try to do − try to bring energy," said Berard, who leads the Wolf Pack with 13 points (seven goals and six assists) through 16 AHL games played. "The way that I play is fast. I try to play as physical as I can, even as an under-sized guy. Try to throw my body around. ... If I do, it should be a fun night."
'We’ve got to kick up gears'
Kreider is dealing with an upper-body injury, according to the team, and will miss his first game action since January 2023. It's unclear exactly when the 33-year-old suffered the ailment, and while he did see slightly reduced ice time in the third period of Saturday's 6-2 loss to the Edmonton Oilers, he still finished the game with three shifts in the final 10 minutes.
The Rangers also recalled forward Matt Rempe from Hartford and will insert him into Monday's lineup at the expense of Jonny Brodzinski. Center Filip Chytil is set to miss his fifth consecutive game due to his own upper-body injury.
But while the injuries provided an opening for the Rangers to turn to Berard and Rempe, head coach Peter Laviolette acknowledged that searching for a spark in the midst of the team's recent poor play added motivation for the lineup shuffling.
"We're definitely looking for that," he said. "We’ve got to play a faster game. Some of it's the way we play the game, some of it's our engine. We’ve got to kick up gears. We were not as fast as Edmonton was the other night. There's a way we can play the game that can be faster, and then we can also increase our own engines and get them up to speed, as well."
Back-to-back ugly losses to end last week's western road trip have brought those issues to the forefront, but the Rangers have been trending in the wrong direction for much longer than that.
For the past month, they've played a generally unsustainable brand of hockey that's far too reliant on their superb goaltending duo of Igor Shesterkin and Jonathan Quick − and, in truth, you could trace it back even further. The Blueshirts have been a middling five-on-five team for years that goes into bouts where they struggle to manage and advance pucks, particularly against some of the NHL's most aggressive forechecking opponents. That's resulted in lopsided possession battles that expose their defensive weaknesses and vulnerability against the rush.
They've gone 7-6 in their last 13 games but done so while allowing a league-worst 34 shots per 60 minutes in that span. A look under the hood is equally concerning, with an average of 3.41 expected goals against per 60 that ranks 28th out of 32 teams, according to Natural Stat Trick.
"We've got to come out more on the attack," Laviolette said. "We've got to do things that set our game up better offensively. Just a hunt inside of the offensive zone, more people to the net, more pucks to the net – all of that could be better. We're just on our heels a little bit too much."
Kreider, Trouba on the trade block
Kreider is far from the only reason for those diminishing returns, but his underwhelming production has become harder to ignore.
He's scored nine goals through 19 games played, but only two have come at 5v5 and he's still searching for his first assist in any situation this season. His 43.26% xGF ranks dead last among New York's regular skaters, which has apparently prompted team president Chris Drury to put him on the trade block.
Following Sunday's loss to the Oilers, he sent a message to all NHL general managers that the Rangers are open for business and motivated to shakeup their core, according to two sources who spoke to lohud.com, part of the Paste BN Network, on the condition of anonymity. Kreider and captain Jacob Trouba are the candidates Drury is most actively shopping, but very few are considered off limits. Defenseman Ryan Lindgren is another who's widely believed to be available.
Forwards Artemi Panarin, Vincent Trocheck and Mika Zibanejad each hold full no-movement clauses, meaning no trade can be executed without their consent, but both Kreider and Trouba shifted to modified 15-team no-trade lists this season. The Rangers tried to move the latter over the summer, but those efforts were thwarted, with belief being they'd try again in 2025.
A Kreider trade would come as a bigger surprise, as he's spent all 13 of his professional seasons on Broadway and sits third on the franchise's all-time list with 313 career goals. But Drury has grown increasingly concerned about this core plateauing after reaching the Eastern Conference Final two of the last three years and is now putting everyone on notice.
One league source questioned the chances of a major deal happening this far in advance of the March 7 trade deadline − a rarity in the NHL. The hefty contracts involved will also be prohibitive. Kreider is due an average annual value of $6.5 million through the 2026-27 season, while Trouba has one year remaining after this at $8 million. That will add degrees of difficulty to any potential trade, which will put Drury's motivation and creativity to the test.
Whether he can pull off a franchise-altering trade before Christmas is very much to be determined, but what's become increasingly clear is that the Rangers have reached a crossroads, and something will eventually have to give.
NY Rangers (12-6-1) projected lineup: Game 20 vs. St. Louis Blues (9-12-1)
When: Monday, Nov. 25 at 7 p.m.
Where: Madison Square Garden
TV/Radio: MSG Network/1050 AM
Forwards
Top line ⊳ Artemi Panarin (LW) ⋄ Vincent Trocheck (C) ⋄ Alexis Lafrenière (RW)
Second line ⊳ Will Cuylle (LW) ⋄ Mika Zibanejad (C) ⋄ Brett Berard (RW)
Third line ⊳ Adam Edström (LW) ⋄ Kaapo Kakko (C) ⋄ Reilly Smith (RW)
Fourth line ⊳ Jimmy Vesey (LW) ⋄ Sam Carrick (C) ⋄ Jonny Brodzinski (RW)
Defensemen
Top pair ⊳ K'Andre Miller (L) ⋄ Adam Fox (R)
Second pair ⊳ Ryan Lindgren (L) ⋄ Jacob Trouba (R)
Third pair ⊳ Zac Jones (L) ⋄ Braden Schneider (R)
Goalies
Starter ⊳ Igor Shesterkin
Backup ⊳ Jonathan Quick
Healthy scratches: F Matt Rempe
Injured: Filip Chytil (upper body) and Chris Kreider (upper body)
Vincent Z. Mercogliano is the New York Rangers beat reporter for the Paste BN Network. Read more of his work at lohud.com/sports/rangers/ and follow him on Twitter @vzmercogliano.