Rumors of a New York Rangers trade have dominated the news for the last few days and Chris Kreider’s name continues to pop up.
Chris Kreider began his New York Rangers career during the playoffs in 2011-12. Kreider played in 18 games scoring five goals with two assists. The “Kreiderman” was explosive that playoff with his speed, hard-hitting, and scoring.
The lights on Broadway was bright and he had New York City in his hands.
Kreider has now played 335 games on Broadway, recording 91 goals, 96 assists for 187 points along with a plus 50 for his career. He is coming off a career season where he scored 28 goals, 25 assists for 53 points. There is one problem with these statistics. As great as the number are, Kreider’s inconsistent play has been a major flaw of his game.
Quite often Kreider is on the ice but never seen. He goes through stretches of hockey games where he is a non-factor. He will miss defensive assignments, doesn’t register a point for multiple games and gets lazy in games where the result is a penalty as he puts his team down a man. The player with so much potential seems to only play great hockey when he is in the mood to do so.
This is not the only reason why he is in trade rumors, most recently he is rumored to be going to Montreal for Alex Galchenyuk, Kreider is a top-six forward and that is what it will take for a trade to be completed. In this situation, Kreider appears to be the odd man out. The other forwards that make up the first two lines of the Rangers are Rick Nash, Mika Zibenajad, Kevin Hayes, J.T. Miller and Mats Zuccarello. Looking at these names, it’s apparent why Chris Kreider’s name has come up in trade the trade rumors to Montreal.
Last night it was reported that the Rangers sent representatives to Montreal to watch the Ottowa Senators play the Canadiens.
Schoenfeld, Leger, Sather, & Risebrough from NYR all here tonight. Very rare to have senior staff at one game. @TSN1200 @TSN690
— Shawn Simpson (@TSNSimmer) October 30, 2017
Jim Schoenfeld, Gilles Leger, Glen Sather and Doug Risebrough all were in attendance for last night game. The organization must be considering some kind of a deal for all of these executives to attend the game but it doesn’t mean Kreider is the player Montreal wants for sure.
The real question is have the Rangers scene the best of Kris Kreider’s potential? Can the Rangers benefit from trading Chris Kreider now and would it help make the Rangers a better team?
One single trade doesn’t normally make a team better. Of course, it depends on the players being swapped. Kreider is the type of player fans love to watch play when he is skating his style of game. The flip side to that is he is very frustrating to watch when he is just on the ice and not performing at the level we expect him to be playing at. It’s a tough decision to make especially after the season he had last year, but with the team hideous start to this season, a trade is inevitable.
For now, we can read the rumors and wait to see if any of them come to life.
