Latest on Rangers' trade discussions

It's been a bit of a heated week for the New York Rangers, but things might be cooling down for now.

It all started last Saturday when the Rangers suffered a rough 6-2 loss to the Edmonton Oilers. It marked their second straight loss after falling to the Calgary Flames two days earlier.

Following that loss to the Oilers, Sportsnet's Elliotte Friedman reported on Monday that the Rangers had indicated their interest in making moves and shaking up their roster, including taking offers on Chris Kreider and Jacob Trouba.

The Rangers then went on to lose their next three games against the St. Louis Blues, Carolina Hurricanes and Philadelphia Flyers.

Friedman provided new context on the Rangers' trade discussions during the Saturday Headlines segment on Hockey Night in Canada.

"Yeah, so a crazy week for the Rangers, ever since last Saturday night, seven days ago, they lost in Edmonton," said Friedman. "They sent out a note this week saying that Chris Kreider and Jacob Trouba could be available, if teams were interested to contact the Rangers, and it got out in the public (and the) fallout was massive.

"And you know, people have heard Trouba's name before. They hadn't heard Kreider's name before. And I think in the aftermath of that, what teams were trying to figure out was, what are the Rangers really willing to do? Are there other players who could be available? And since Trouba and Kreider have partial no-trade clauses, where would they really be willing to go?"

However, after the Rangers managed to defeat the Montreal Canadiens 4-3 earlier Saturday to break their five-game losing skid, Friedman believes that things around the team have calmed down — at least for a day.

"I think also, in the middle of this, the blowback was so crazy, and the result this week so poor until today, I think even New York wanted to tone down the heat and just pause before they jumped into anything really too intense or that they might later regret. So, things kind of cooled down a bit."

The Rangers won the Presidents' Trophy last season and advanced to the third round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs before being eliminated by the eventual champion Florida Panthers. To start this season, New York is 13-9-1 and currently sits fourth in the Metropolitan Division and sixth in the Eastern Conference with 27 points.

Trouba, the Rangers' captain, has been with the team since 2019. The 30-year-old has six assists in 23 games this season. Meanwhile, alternate captain Kreider has been with New York for the entirety of his NHL career. Across 20 games this season, the 33-year-old has nine goals.

Friedman also noted an interesting aspect of the Rangers potentially making Trouba and Kreider available.

"I think the interesting thing here is that the Rangers did not give anyone permission to speak to Trouba or Kreider. They want to keep control of the process, and that's critical because earlier this week, the NHL sent out a memo.

"Now you'll remember, at the GM meetings, they warned teams about tampering. They didn't like how July 1 went last year, with a bunch of signings announced right in the afternoon. They warned about not only players but teams' employees, like coaches and managers, and other people who worked in the front office, and they reminded everybody these are the potential tampering penalties if you are caught, for teams or individuals. So they are trying to tell people, if you get caught, we are going to punish you."