The New York Rangers welcomed Ryan Lindgren back into the lineup two games ago after he missed the first five due to injury. The gritty defenseman has spent most of his career playing on the Blueshirts’ top defensive pairing with Adam Fox, but that has not been the case since his return. Peter Laviolette has opted to move Lindgren down to the bottom pairing, playing alongside rookie sensation Victor Mancini.
With Lindgren being moved down to the bottom pairing, and it being a contract year for him, trade rumors have already begun to circulate. The Rangers could expect a massive trade deadline later this season, so clearing his cap hit would certainly be helpful.
A trade between the Rangers and Utah makes sense
Earlier this week, the Utah Hockey Club announced that their defenseman John Marino will be out for three to four months with a lower back injury. This is a brutal loss for Utah, who has had a solid start to their inaugural season. Now down one of their top defensemen, could the Hockey Club potentially be interested in Lindgren if he’s made available?
The Hockey Club currently has over $8 million in cap space available for them to utilize. This is more than enough to potentially take on Lindgren’s $4.5 million cap hit. It’s certainly financially possible. But the Rangers would need to be willing to move on from Lindgren.
Lindgren is set to become an unrestricted free agent after this season. He isn’t the only Blueshirt in the midst of a contract year, with Igor Shesterkin, Alexis Lafreniere, and K’Andre Miller being some other notable stars looking for new deals later this year. It’ll be nearly impossible to lock up all of these players, which makes Lindgren the odd man out. It’s still too early to tell, but a possible Lindgren trade- whether to Utah or elsewhere, is certainly likely.
