A Possible Trade Target For the New York Rangers

Could the Rangers Deal For Pastrnak?

With all the trade rumors enveloping the New York Rangers, one name they should keep in mind as a potential trade target is Boston Bruins' superstar right winger David Pastrnak. How? Well, the situation the Bruins are now facing is actually worse than the Rangers' at his point. Just two years after a record shattering regular season Boston is struggling, big time. Two of their best players, their captain, Patrice Bergeron and David Krejcii have retired, they traded away Vezina-winning goalie Linus Ullmark, perennial All Star Brad Marchant is 36 and look every bit of it, they fired their coach, Jim Montgomery (who has since latched on with St. Louis) and the team's staring straight down the barrel of a major rebuild, which, in essence, has already begun as have, by no coincidence, the Pastrnak trade rumors. The Bruins are also in need of draft picks and prospects to help fortify that rebuild A.S.A.P. 

      

Now a player of Pastrnak's caliber doesn't come around very often so for the Rangers, any trade offer could likely be centered around prospects Brennan Othman, Bret Berard, veterans Kaapo Kakko, Filip Chytil, and Mika Zibanejad as well as draft picks. Obviously, that's not certain but it could be a starting point for negotiations. 

A bigger issue for the Rangers is Pastrnak's massive contract. At age 28, he's currently on an 8-year deal worth $90 million with a cap hit of $11.25 million and it expires at the end of the 2030-31 season, which is a perfect ballpark for New York because it means Pastrnak won't be a free agent any time soon. But trying to shoehorn a contract of that magnitude into the Rangers' payroll without blasting over the league's team salary cap rule is going to require a great amount of creative and skillful work by Rangers' president and GM Chris Drury. And if such a scenario should come to light, with his exemplary track record nobody should doubt that Drury can get it done.