According to the latest NHL trade rumors, no fewer than eight teams are interested in New York Rangers forward Chris Kreider.
As the NHL trade deadline approaches, teams are starting to express interest in their top trade targets. One of the hottest names on the market is New York Rangers forward Chris Kreider. He’s the top rental forward available and is expected to be traded by the deadline. According to the latest NHL trade rumors, no fewer than eight teams have expressed interest in the Rangers forward.
This report is from Pierre LeBrun on TSN‘s latest “Insider Trading” segment. He’s reporting there’s a ton of interest in him and more teams are expected to express interest in him as the NHL trade deadline on Feb. 24 draws near.
While a trade isn’t set in stone, it doesn’t appear Kreider will stick around in New York past the trade deadline. There haven’t been any talks about an extension, though the Rangers are still somewhat optimistic they could re-sign him. Kreider will be a free agent at the end of the 2019-20 season, so they’ll have to act quickly if they want to keep him around.
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According to LeBrun, the Rangers are asking for quite a bit for Kreider. They’ll reportedly want a similar return as the one they got at last year’s trade deadline when they traded Kevin Hayes to the Winnipeg Jets.
In that trade, the Rangers got the Jets’ first-round pick (which they later sent back in the Jacob Trouba trade) and Brendan Lemieux, along with a conditional fourth-round pick, which the Rangers did not receive.
Kreider has a $4.65 million cap hit and is the last year of his contract. Even though he’s a rental, history shows the Rangers should expect to get at least a first-round pick for him.
They’ve gotten similar returns for Hayes, Mats Zuccarello, and Rick Nash in recent years. One could argue Kreider’s better than all three of them.
This season, Kreider is having one of his best seasons. He has 32 points in 48 games as of Jan. 31. Moreover, Kreider is on pace to pick up his fifth season with at least 20 goals in his last six seasons. Also, at the 2020 NHL All-Star Game skills competition, he finished in third place in the Fastest Skater Competition.