On the New York Rangers, Tampa Bay Lightning and Boston Bruins …
Larry Brooks of the NY Post: The Rangers will be looking to trade pending free agents Rick Nash, Michael Grabner, Nick Holden and David Desharnais. 2019 free agents Ryan McDonagh and Mats Zuccarello could also be available.
“I wouldn’t say that there’s anything imminent, but at the same time, you never really know, so I wouldn’t want to give off any false signals,” he said. “If I say, ‘no,’ and something comes through on the next phone call, it would seem like I’m trying to mislead people.
“We have a lot of balls in the air. It’s hard to predict.”
Pierre LeBrun: Rangers defenseman Ryan McDonagh has recently submitted his 10-team no-trade list. Not sure that they will trade him at the deadline. The asking price now will be high. Could be a June decision.
Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic: Hard to say if the Rangers will trade McDonagh. Would think that they may be able to get more in return if dealing in the offseason as more teams being able to get involved, but they may not be the case.
Would the Tampa Bay Lightning or Boston Bruins ante up to get McDonagh for two playoff runs? They have the pieces to get a deal done.
McDonagh would be the top defenseman available at the trade deadline if they made him available. If they didn’t trade him at the deadline and revisited after the season, and what if one of the other 2019 UFA defensemen in Erik Karlsson, Oliver Ekman-Larsson, or Drew Doughty became available? The market/return for McDonagh could be affected.
Chris Nichols of FanRag Sports: Elliotte Friedman on Sportsnet 590 believes the Lightning are looking for help on the blue line and on the wing.
“My major reason for writing that, the Nash and McDonagh thing, is because I think Tampa will do something A, and B their prospect and player pool is so deep that there’s probably nobody who can take as big a swing as they can if they want. St. Louis is probably close with the prospects they have, but Tampa is the deepest. And I think teams are wary of Tampa in the sense that Yzerman wouldn’t be afraid of it and B he can do it.
“I think it’s much more likely Nash gets dealt than McDonagh. I’ve heard the in-season ask for McDonagh is very, very high. I think the Bruins especially – he’s a left-hand shot, Chara’s a left-hand shot – even though Chara drinks from the fountain of youth, he’s going to run out of time at some point and McDonagh long term could be the replacement for him.”
Friedman doesn’t think that the Bruins would want to match the asking price right now.