In the risk-averse NHL, the Rangers and Canucks decided it was better to roll the dice than to accept their new normal as playoff outsiders.
It’s a breath of fresh air.
Even knowing that the J.T. Miller-Elias Pettersson saga had become untenable — admitted as much by Canucks president Jim Rutherford — the package that the Canucks ultimately settled on carries a lot of risk for the team.
It carries a lot of risk for the Rangers as well.
Here is the potential risk — and reward — of the Canucks and Rangers’ swap.
The Risk
The Canucks did something that teams shouldn’t do — traded the best player, who also happens to be a true top center, and got back a mystery box in the process.
The Rangers also did something you’re not supposed to do — they acquired an aging player on the wrong side of 30 in the middle of a down season on a long-term contract. And they gave up on a promising 25-year-old center who has proven he can be a 20-goal scorer in the NHL. And even as this move potentially makes the team better this season, it may not make them better with enough time left to make a difference.
Meanwhile, that 25-year-old center, Filip Chytil, hasn’t looked like the same player since suffering a concussion that cost him 72 regular-season games and part of the playoffs last year. Vancouver is banking on him to find the part of his game stolen by injuries over the past two seasons.
The red flags are waving. So, what gives?
The Reward
Rangers general manager Chris Drury has been actively seeking to remake the core of his team since the eventual Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers eliminated New York in six games last spring.
Since the season started, he’s dealt defenseman Jacob Trouba and winger Kaapo Kakko, acquired and extended defenseman Will Borgen, and now traded Chytil in a deal for Miller.
Miller, a former 100-point player who is notoriously tricky for top-line centers to match up against, could be the player the Rangers were missing in the 2024 playoffs.
For the Canucks, their hand was forced by the Miller-Pettersson feud spilling into the public sphere. That said, there is an upside in the players they acquired. The real reward was the top-13 protected first-round pick the Rangers sent — providing Vancouver with the ammunition they needed to make a second trade Friday night that brought in pending unrestricted free agent defenseman Marcus Pettersson from Pittsburgh to bolster their back-end.
As of Feb. 1, two teams were on the outside looking in, and neither considered that acceptable.
