Rangers trade for Kane; Hurricanes, Leafs, Oilers load up
Patrick Kane is Broadway-bound, and the New York Rangers are far from the only top contender making big moves ahead of the NHL trade deadline.
The Rangers acquired Kane from Chicago in a threeteam trade Tuesday night, adding the three-time Stanley Cup champion to their core that reached the Eastern Conference final last year and a couple of recent additions, including prolific scoring winger Vladimir Tarasenko.
“I think Patrick recognized it was a good fit for him and it's a good fit for us,” general manager Chris Drury said. “We're certainly excited that he wanted to be traded and that it was to the New York Rangers.”
Adding Kane — hours after Metropolitan Divisionleading Carolina made a trade and days after NHLbest Boston got bigger and tougher — moves New York into the thick of the championship race.
Some of the other top teams around the league did not wait for the Kane trade to happen to get their deals done. Carolina is buying low on an underachieving young scorer, Toronto is making wholesale changes to prepare for the playoffs and two perennial contenders are looking toward the future.
The Hurricanes got Jesse Puljujarvi from the Edmonton Oilers, who were also active in adding Mattias Ekholm from Nashville, and the Maple Leafs completed three separate deals with an eye on navigating a difficult road through the Eastern Conference. Toronto acquired big defenseman Luke Schenn from Vancouver, sent Rasmus Sandin to Washington for a first-round pick and veteran Erik Gustafsson and traded forward Pierre Engvall to the New York Islanders.
General manager Kyle Dubas said it was no secret the Maple Leafs “wanted to become more competitive” and that's evident now that they've brought in six new players in the past two weeks. Engvall, traded for a 2024 third-round pick, is one of two additions for the Islanders, who are chasing one of two wild-card spots in the East and were eager to augment their forward depth.
Out West, Minnesota paid that same price in a deal with Washington for well-traveled forward Marcus Johansson, who has now been traded five times in under six years, including the second time the Wild have added him. Minnesota also got injured winger Gustav Nyquist from Columbus for a 2023 fifth-round pick, which the Wild got from the Bruins for facilitating the trade with the Capitals
last week.
Keeping true to GM Brian MacLellan's plan to reset quickly to try to win again as soon as next year, the Capitals sent Boston's first-round pick that they got last week to Toronto with Gustafsson for Sandin, who turns 23 next week and is signed through next season at the bargain price of $1.4 million.
Nashville, which like Washington is a playoff mainstay, continued selling by trading Ekholm to Edmonton for defenseman Tyson Barrie, forward prospect Reid Schaefer, a first-round pick this year and a fourthrounder in 2024. Ekholm gives the Oilers, who are giving up more than three goals a game, some balance on the blue line behind the top two scorers in the league: MVP favorite Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl.
The Hurricanes would love to roll through the loaded East and figure Puljujarvi can help them do that. They sent the rights to 22-year-old unsigned draft pick Patrik Puistola to the Oilers in a swap of Finnish forwards.
Puljujarvi, 24, joins countrymen Sebastian Aho, Teuvo Teravainen, Jesperi Kotkaniemi and Antti Raanta with the Hurricanes. He played on a line with Aho for Finland at the 2016 world junior championship and led the tournament with 17 points in seven games.