The New York Rangers have had lots of roster turnover this past year and a half. Of the players who were on the ice for Game 6 of the 2024 Eastern Conference Final, only nine remain with the team today. Whether they left via free agency or trade, the Rangers shook up this team in a big way, and it hasn’t gone the way they hoped. In this piece, we are going to look at how the five players they have traded over the past year have performed on their new teams.
Chris Kreider – Anaheim Ducks
After a great performance in the 2024 Playoffs, it felt as if Chris Kreider was truly on his way to becoming a franchise legend with the Rangers. He is the Rangers’ all-time playoff goal-scoring leader and is near the top of many franchise lists when it comes to offensive categories. However, with the team performing poorly last season and his play being hampered by injuries, it felt like the right time to move on from Kreider. He was traded in the offseason to the Anaheim Ducks and has been a key veteran player for them as they head towards their first playoff appearance since the 2017-18 season.
While he got off to a hot start this season, his offense has slowed down noticeably. He has scored 22 goals and recorded 48 points in 73 games this season. He scored 22 goals with the Rangers last season, so his goal-scoring ability hasn’t gotten back to where it was a few seasons ago when he was a consistent 30-plus goal scorer. He has made a big impact off the ice as he is one of the true veteran leaders on a young Ducks team. Once they get to the playoffs, fans in Anaheim should see a new side of Kreider, as he always raises his game when the games matter most.
Jacob Trouba – Anaheim Ducks
The first major move of this roster shakeup occurred when the Rangers traded their captain, Jacob Trouba, to the Anaheim Ducks in December 2024. There were rumors that they wanted to trade him months earlier, but Trouba used his trade protection to block them from sending him to teams that wanted him. When the Rangers began to struggle, they basically threatened to put him on waivers if he didn’t accept a trade, as they wanted to clear his $8 million salary for last season and this season. He chose the Ducks as the team he wanted to go to.
He skated in 53 games with the Ducks last season, scoring one goal and registering eight points and 44 penalty minutes. He has played much better in his second season with the Ducks, scoring 10 goals and registering 34 points in 78 games this season. He isn’t being forced to do as much with the Ducks as he did with the Rangers, and this reduced role has helped him find his game again. With him set to become an unrestricted free agent this summer, it will be interesting to see if he stays with the Ducks or tests the market with how thin the free agent class is.
Kaapo Kakko – Seattle Kraken
After Trouba was moved, the next trade was sending Kaapo Kakko to the Seattle Kraken in exchange for Will Borgen and a few draft picks. This trade hurt more than some of the others, as it sucked to see that Kakko never got to reach his potential in New York after being drafted second overall in the 2019 NHL Draft. Whether it was poor coaching decisions or him being plagued with injuries, he never got a true chance to show what he could do. He is now playing his first full season with the Kraken, and he has been okay at best, with the team around him not being very good.
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Kakko missed some time to start the season as he suffered a broken wrist in a preseason game. He has played in 61 games this season, scoring 13 goals and recording 38 points. He has been playing better lately as he has gotten healthier, but once again, injuries have prevented him from playing a full season. He is still 25 years old and will likely be a piece that the Kraken want to keep around, but it’s safe to assume he is never going to reach the potential he had all those years ago, and fans need to accept that fact.
Filip Chytil – Vancouver Canucks
Another player whose career has been derailed by injuries is Filip Chytil. After having a career season during the 2022-23 season, he got a concussion early on the following season and played in only 10 regular-season games. He came back for the playoffs, but was not much of a factor. He was traded to the Vancouver Canucks as part of the J.T. Miller trade, and their fans have not gotten to see much of him once again due to injuries.
Chytil played in 15 games with the Canucks following the trade last season, but once again got a head injury and missed the rest of the season. He came back to start this season, but a hit from Tom Wilson put him back on the shelf. He missed most of the season with another concussion, but he did manage to come back, only to suffer a facial fracture in mid-February and has not played the rest of this season. Chytil is a good player when he is healthy, but with all of these injuries, it might be time for him to sit down with his family and decide if playing the game he loves is more important than his long-term health.
K’Andre Miller – Carolina Hurricanes
Another big trade the Rangers made last offseason was trading K’Andre Miller to the Carolina Hurricanes. The Rangers did not want to pay the price he was asking for, so they did a sign-and-trade with Carolina, and he is now playing for their division rival. Miller’s time in New York was filled with ups and downs, as many saw that he had all the tools to be a top-pairing defenseman, but he could never seem to put it all together. For all the good he provided, there were also some unforgivable mistakes and turnovers, and his game seemed to just plateau in New York.
Miller has had a solid first season with the Hurricanes. He has scored eight goals and recorded 37 points in 71 games. He had to play bigger minutes earlier in the season when Jaccob Slavin was out with an injury, but he has since settled into being a good second-pair defenseman. Miller still has all the talent in the world, but it seems he still hasn’t put it all together, even under a new head coach and playing a new system. Time will tell if the Rangers made the right choice in moving on from Miller, or if he will haunt them for years to come.
The Rangers have traded away a lot of players over the past year. Some veteran leaders who had been here for a long time, and some younger players who never seemed to find their game in New York. While fans will argue that some of these trades were not necessary, it was clear the Rangers needed to go in a different direction after failing in the playoffs multiple years in a row. Maybe some of these players could have been part of the solution, but only time will tell if the Rangers made a mistake moving on from them.
