President & General Manager Chris Drury put out a memo to the 31 other teams two weeks ago, stating that the Rangers “were open for business”, and reportedly including the names of veterans Jacob Trouba and Chris Kreider. Now that Trouba has been traded, and the Rangers have signed Igor Shesterkin, Drury has the cap space and cost certainty to make deals that would improve the Rangers chances of getting back into the playoffs, and pursuing their first championship since 1994.
Now, we are often told that sentimentality has no place in business, and sports is indeed a business. There are numerous intangible and sentimental reasons why we don’t believe that the Rangers should entertain trading Kreider, but we are going to start with some cold, hard facts.
ELITE ON SPECIAL TEAMS
The Rangers strength over these last three years has been their goaltending and special teams. Kreider and his linemates have struggled to score 5×5 in the last 15 months, but he remains elite on both the power play and penalty kill.
Since the start of the 2021-22 season Kreider has 56 power-play goals which ranks him 3rd behind only Leon Draisaitl and Sam Reinhart. On the penalty kill, Kreider has no peer as he ranks first with 11 short-handed goals in that span.
ELITE PLAYOFF SCORER
The New York Rangers have won 4 playoff rounds in the last three seasons, but they struggled to score consistently in their losing efforts to Tampa Bay (2022), New Jersey (2023) and Florida (2024). Which begs the question, why would they entertain trading their most consistent playoff scorer? Kreider is the Rangers all-time leading playoff goal scorer with 48 goals, but has really heated up in these last 3 playoff seasons, scoring 24 goals in 43 playoff games. Here’s a look at the Rangers top playoff goal scorers over that period:
- Kreider 24
- Mika Zibanejad 14
- Artemi Panarin 11
- Alexis Lafreniere 10
Bigger picture, across the NHL he trails only three Edmonton Oilers in the span:
- Draisaitl & Zach Hyman 30 each
- Connor McDavid 26
- Kreider 24
ELITE NET FRONT PRESENCE
You don’t necessarily need facts to conclude that Kreider has supplanted Joe Pavelski as the NHL’s premiere net-front player, he passes the eye test. However, thanks to the folks at Puck Unlimited, we can share the leaders in tip-in goals from 2018-19 through the 2023-24 seasons:
- Chris Kreider 61
- Joe Pavelski 40
- Sam Reinhart 36
Not only is Kreider elite in front of the net, but he’s also been unselfishly helping younger players, specifically Kaapo Kakko and Will Cuylle, with learning the nuances of screening the goaltender and tipping shots.
ELITE SPEED
In the Rangers most recent slump, especially when Filip Chytil was out with an upper body injury, it was painfully obvious that the Rangers could use more, not less, speed in their lineup. Kreider has been one of the fastest Rangers since he arrived off the Boston College campus in 2012, and it’s especially evident when killing penalties with his partner (and BFF) Zibanejad.
HIS CONTRACT
Kreider has two more years, beyond this one, left on his $6.5m per year contract. That’s an attractive number for potential buyers, as he is an elite power forward playing at slightly below market value. From the Rangers perspective, you have a homegrown Ranger who was willing to give his team a hometown discount. At SRNY, we do not begrudge any athlete from pursuing the contract of their dreams, but for the purposes of this discussion it’s important to note that the rest of the Ranger’s primary core (Artemi Panarin, Igor Shesterkin, Adam Fox & Mika Zibanejad) signed at or above market value. This is where we start to blend facts and sentimentality, but it would send a good message to reward the one guy who says he loves being a Ranger, and backed it up at the negotiating table.
ALL-TIME RANGER
Sports is a business, the entertainment business, and sometimes it’s important to keep a long-time cast member on the show. Kreider is the bridge from the Henrik Lundqvist era through the Igor Shesterkin era. He’s a first-round draft pick, a homegrown player, who in his 13 years has been to one Stanley Cup final and 4 other Eastern Conference Finals. His strength and workouts are legendary (who can forget seeing him jump out of a pool) and every summer he mentors Ranger prospects at Prentiss Hockey Performance in Stamford, CT. You can make a parallel to the fact that he’s become more productive as he ages.
IF he sticks with the Blueshirts he’ll have an opportunity to pass Mr. Ranger (Rod Gilbert) for the all-time lead in goals scored while wearing a Rangers uniform (it’s a good time to remind everyone that the Rangers are an Original 6 team in their 99th season):
- Rod Gilbert 406
- Jean Ratelle 336
- Chris Kreider 314
Kreider has had many iconic moments, but none bigger than his game 6 heroics last spring against the Carolina Hurricanes, when he pulled a “Messier” and scored a 3rd period hat trick to propel the Rangers to a game and series ending win. That was on May 16th, just 7 months ago. Right after that game the talk was whether Kreider had already done enough to have his number retired with the other great left wings in Rangers’ history Vic Hadfield and Adam Graves.
COLD, HARD TRUTH
There are a ton of sentimental reasons for wanting the longest tenured Ranger to stay in New York, but for those of us observing Drury over the last 6 months, that doesn’t matter to him. Drury was hired by James Dolan to deliver a Stanley Cup to New York, and he’s going to make any move, including waiving an assistant captain and embarrassing and trading the actual captain, if he thinks it’s going to help the team.
Here’s the thing, there is a cold-blooded business reason to keep Chris Kreider. He’s still a productive power forward who despite a slow start is on pace for 32 goals. He’s still elite on special teams and provides skill and speed that cannot easily be replaced. The Rangers are a win-now team, and Kreider is a win-now player.
Based on Drury’s track record, he’s a man of his word. A move will be coming. Whomever the Rangers acquire should be greeted in the locker room by #20.
Hockey stats compiled from QuantHockey and Hockey Reference
