Sidney Crosby's tenure in Manhattan turned out to be a short one, as the star center expressed concerns about the bright limelights of Madison Square Garden. Imagine that, such a great player actually wanting to go to Nashville instead? But oh well, we didn't want a disgruntled superstar to be a distraction, so we eventually obliged and sent Sid on his way.
To NSH
F Sidney Crosby
4th round pick
To NYR
F Jamie Benn
D Nicolas Beaudin
2021 1st round pick
that 1st round pick didn't stick around for long either, as the Rangers turned around and flipped it in yet another trade.
To NYI
F Derek Stepan
2021 1st round pick
To NYR
F William Karlsson
big thanks to both cambam8 and Scorp for the talks and deals!
For us, these deals do a couple of things. Giving up Crosby stings, but these deals give us two top six players instead of one and we can spread the scoring a little bit. We also get younger in both deals and save some cap. We tried to move Stepans contract all offseason, but it was a difficult task ... offloading him in that deal helps us a lot. Benns numbers went down a bit, but that Stars team wasn't too great offensively as a whole and we hope he can get back to his usual self next season. And Karlsson ... I went after him hard earlier this offseason when he was still an Oiler
so finally getting him on board is great. And last but not least, I really like Beaudin and his upside. So while giving up Crosby stings, I'm pretty happy with all those assets coming back.
so with that, the 20-21 Rangers as of today:
Jamie Benn - William Karlsson - Reilly Smith
Brett Connolly - Adam Henrique - Connor Brown
Yanni Gourde - Blake Coleman - Ryan Dzingel
Frederick Gauthier - Zemgus Girgensons - Markus Granlund/Valentin Zykov
Esa Lindell - Brett Pesce
Alex Goligoski - Troy Stecher
Carson Soucy - Jason Demers
Jake Allen - Mackenzie Blackwood
so pretty much last year's playoff team plus Benn and Karlsson. I like that.