- Vince Mercogliano says the Rangers want to turn Braden Schneider into forward help
- A Schneider-for-Shane Wright swap with Seattle has hurdles and no reported traction
- Read below for the teams and forwards floated as fits on a Schneider deal
The New York Rangers still want a forward, and Braden Schneider is the chip they would spend to get one.
Vincent Z. Mercogliano of The Athletic was asked in his latest Rangers offseason mailbag whether New York would send Schneider to the Seattle Kraken for center Shane Wright. He called the concept reasonable on its face, then laid out where it falls apart.
“The Seattle Kraken are believed to be seeking scoring forwards, not defensemen, so I’m not sure this deal would meet their needs. I haven’t heard anything that suggests there’s traction there.”
The bigger takeaway is what the Rangers actually want in return. Mercogliano had made the same point a couple of weeks earlier, and the additions of Marcus Pettersson and Sean Durzi have only pushed the 24-year-old blueliner further down the depth chart.
“I still believe the Rangers would like to leverage Schneider into forward help of their own, especially given the improved defensive depth,” Mercogliano wrote. “The market hasn’t yielded any sure-fire options to this point, so it may have to be a Wright-like reclamation project, if it happens at all.”
Schneider is coming off an 82-game season with two goals, 16 assists and 20:27 of ice time a night. He signed a one-year deal worth $5.5 million earlier this month to avoid an arbitration hearing, which leaves him a restricted free agent again next summer.
Here is New York making that one official:
Seattle has its own decision to make on Wright. The fourth pick in the 2022 draft put up 12 goals and 27 points in 74 games last season while averaging 13:48, and his name has been in circulation since the spring.
Wright’s reported preference all along has been Vancouver, where he sees a rebuild he fits into. Take a look at how that one broke:
Pittsburgh kicked the tires too. Josh Yohe fielded a question on the Penguins’ interest in Wright in his July mailbag:
Other landing spots came up in the same mailbag. Mercogliano floated the Anaheim Ducks, Chicago Blackhawks and San Jose Sharks as defense-needy clubs, and named Columbus winger Kent Johnson and Calgary forward Connor Zary as change-of-scenery candidates worth a look.
None of it forces Chris Drury to act. Mercogliano wrote that he senses the Rangers general manager is fine opening the season with Schneider on the third pair and revisiting the market at the trade deadline or next summer.
