I have said it before, and I’ll say it again, New York sports are never dull. Friday December 6th was no exception at Madison Square Garden, as the Rangers long awaited shake up began. To say the first two plus months of the season have been dramatic would be an understatement, and the days events feels like the first of maybe several crescendos. It almost feels like the rule of this franchise is that nothing happens for a while, and then everything happens at once. The 6th was oddly reminiscent of several dates gone by, most notably April 3rd, 2013, a date with some striking parallels.

On that day, the Blueshirts, in the midst of a disappointing season, traded away key veteran Marian Gaborik as part of a series of trades that netted the club John Moore, Ryan Clowe, Derek Dorsett and future key contributor Derick Brassard. Clowe, Moore and Brassard famously arrived 30 minutes before the team’s game with Crosby, Malkin, and the Cup favorite Penguins at MSG, and proceeded to combine for eight points in 6-1 win that wiped out the bad vibes. Sound familiar? It should, as the Rangers used news of a contract extension and a well earned home win over Sid and Malkin and the Pens to stop the bleeding. All that was missing was new comer Urho Vaakanainen playing, let alone scoring, and the Penguins being a contender for much of anything.

This contest, while a needed a win, will ultimately be a footnote to a pair of larger stories I wanted to talk about here. Those are of course, the contract extension awarded to Igor Shesterkin, who started earning it Friday night against Pitt, and the trade of captain Jacob Trouba. One could have seen the latter coming, while the former seemed like a far off distant task at the moment. Let’s begin with the Trouba trade.

To say the 2024-25 season has been tough for Jacob Trouba would be an understatement. That’s not to say some of the criticism he has drawn is unwarranted, but the situation he has been in can’t be easy on a player at all. Trouba turned down a summer trade to his home state Red Wings, a decision his no trade clause rightfully allowed for, meaning he would be back for another season on Broadway. This episode not only fractured the relationship between the Ranger captain and the front office, but put Trouba squarely in the crosshairs of a frustrated fan base. To make matters worse, Trouba struggled out of the gate on the ice, and the team followed that example by playing just as poorly.

With the club in a tailspin GM Chris Drury has been looking to shake up the roster and change the mix in the locker room. This of course led to the resumption of trade talks surrounding Trouba, who after a series of ultimatums finally waved his clause accepting a trade to the Anaheim Ducks. In exchange the Rangers acquired spare blue liner Urho Vaakanainen and a fourth round pick…on the surface. What the club truly acquired in this move is roster space and cap flexibility. That roster space went to promising young defender Victor Mancini, who returned from Hartford giving the Blueshirts needed mobility on the back end. Cap space on the other hand doesn’t show up on the ice, at least not right away, but as a result of the Ducks taking Trouba’s full eight million a year, the Rangers all of a sudden save a lot of money against the cap. Money that could be used to really improve this team as Drury’s overhaul continues.

Trouba’s ugly play and contract made him a prime and reasonable candidate for a trade. Perhaps even more distressing was his seeming detachment from the group and his roles as captain, as he stopped doing postgame media sessions and was said to be “checked out” by members of the media. While I certainly don’t like hearing and seeing that, and his shots at the team in the press aren’t a good thing to hear either, I don’t want to sit here and attack him. Trouba was a great representative of this team off the ice and led by example on it. He was respected by teammates enough to be voted captain, the 28th in team history, and unfortunately the 3rd straight to be traded (Ryan Callahan and Ryan McDonagh precede him). I thank him for his efforts in helping this team nearly achieve its ultimate goal on more than one occasion, and wish him all the best, but the trade was the best thing for both sides. The question is, who will be the next captain? My money is on Chris Kreider or Vinny Trocheck.

With this new found cap flexibility to work with, and the rumor mill buzzing, Chris Drury stayed busy. Instead of another trade, he inked his all world goalie, Igor Shesterkin, to a record breaking 8 year 11.5 million dollar contract extension. This deal was really always a given to get done as the Rangers had no desire to move on from number 31. Sure it’s a lot of money that could hurt the team’s cap outlook down the road, but it’s not like Shesterkin hasn’t earned that money either. This feels like a weight off the organization as they have ended a story that consumed the media oxygen and distracted from the business of winning.

With the off ice drama in the rear view the Rangers got their aforementioned home win over the Penguins. While I don’t want to spend too much time on the win, I’ll say this, one of most important things to occur in Friday’s tilt, was the return of the Trocheck, Panarin, and Lafreniere line, a unit that needs to stay together to power the offense. I’d keep going to the well on that if I was Laviolette and work on finding some chemistry to elsewhere in the lineup as well. This season is not lost, they can recover from this mess, but’s time to start playing better. At 14-10-1 they’re still in a playoff spot right now, but if things don’t get going soon, they will at best be on the bubble all year. But for now it’s one game at a time the team tries to regain its footing and rumors swirl around them. All in all it was a crazy day that moved fast, and it probably won’t be the last one like they. All we can hope for is that they lead to better days ahead for the Rangers!

On Twitter you can find Mike @Mike_Sheerin, Tyler @TMon_19 and Sean @SeanMartinNFL. Subscribe to the site by hitting the follow button in the bottom right corner and entering your email address. Check out our Instagram feed @thebroadwaybreakdownsports for special gameday and promotional content. Our podcasts are available on Spotify. Visit the Rangers Ed Shop by clicking the link on our homepage. Check out our mailbag page to join the conversation here on the site and on our partners show, The Rangers Ed Podcast! We’ll be back with more soon!