Rangers Continue To Clean House As Chris Kreider Gets Shipped To Anaheim
Kreider leaves New York as one of the highest-scoring Rangers ever
After a disappointing 2024-25 NHL season, the New York Rangers have had to make some tough decisions and move on from some long-time players, and their latest move is sending forward Chris Kreider to Anaheim.
Despite a Presidents' Trophy win in 2023-24 as the top team in the NHL during the regular season, the Blueshirts regressed in a big way and missed the playoffs this season. As such, GM Chris Drury began clearing out some players who don't fit into the team's long-term picture.
One of those moves is sending Kreider to the Ducks.
The 36-year-old has two seasons left on a seven-year deal with an AAV of $6.5 million, but the team needed him to sign off on a trade, seeing as his deal carries a modified no-trade clause.
The Rangers will receive forward Carey Terrance and a 2025 3rd-round pick. Meanwhile, the Ducks are getting Kreider and a 2025 4th-round pick that they traded to the Rangers in exchange for Jacob Trouba last season.
"We want to thank Chris Kreider for all of his contributions to the Rangers organization over his stellar career," Rangers general manager Chris Drury said in a statement, per TSN. "Chris has been an integral part of some of the most iconic moments in Rangers history, including setting multiple franchise records and helping the team advance to the 2014 Stanley Cup Final."
Kreider will join a Ducks team that seems committed to returning to the level of success the team had from the mid-'00s through the 2010s, in which they were perennial playoff contenders and won a Stanley Cup in 2007.
The team has a young core with the likes of Trevor Zegras, Leo Carlsson, and Cutter Gauthier, which, to this point, has perhaps underperformed a little. However, with more veteran leadership from Kreider and coaching from Joel Quenneville — the second-winningest coach in NHL history — the Ducks appear to be on the right track, especially if they're smart about how they use the fair amount of cap space they have available during free agency.