2025 Rangers Report Cards: Former Friends

This post is part of an ongoing series of Rangers Report Cards, grading the performance of each member of the 2024-24 New York Rangers. To view more report cards in this series, go here.

In a far busier than normal season for trades, the New York Rangers dealt away a total of seven notable players in five different trades: Kaapo Kakko, Jacob Trouba, Ryan Lindgren, Jimmy Vesey, Filip Chytil, and Victor Mancini. Let’s get right into it. 

Jacob Trouba

The Rangers “lame duck” Captain, as renowned New York Post columnist Larry Brooks referred to him, was the first shoe to drop this season. After tons of offseason rumors that had him surely on his way to Detroit or anywhere but New York, Trouba exercised his limited no-trade rights to stay, and to give it one last run with this core. Despite an impressive start, the team quickly faltered and general manager Chris Drury was not having it. He dropped The Memo, stating that he was open for business, specifically naming Chris Kreider and Trouba. 

Following an abysmal November, Drury gave his Captain an ultimatum, waive the trade protection or hit the waiver wire. Call it hardball or call it what Calvin de Haan called things, Trouba decided to have some control of his fate and became an Anaheim Duck. In 24 games with the Rangers, Trouba had six assists and was a -3 averaging 20 minutes of ice time per night. He claimed that the offseason drama wasn’t weighing heavy on his shoulders and that it wouldn’t carry into the season, but it sure felt like it did. Trouba without question failed the Rangers this season, but you have to think management played a significant enough role in that, too, so D- it is. 

Kaapo Kakko: 

Speaking of management failing players, Kaapo Kakko didn’t really get a full opportunity until the damage was probably already done. There are valid arguments to be made for both sides as Kakko had three different coaching regimes in which he had to prove himself. But in the end, it was becoming clear that Kakko wasn’t going to become the player he needed to be in New York. It reached a boiling point when he was again healthy scratched when he probably didn’t deserve to be. 

After voicing his frustrations, something that became quite the trend this year, Kakko was dealt to Seattle for Will Borgen and a couple of draft picks. In 30 games played with the Rangers, Kakko had four goals and ten assists in just over an average of 13 minutes of ice time per night—not exactly the numbers you want from a second overall draft pick, which was precisely why the Rangers patience with him was running thin in the first place. All things considered, Kakko gets a C- but I’m sure he’ll earn a much higher grade in the eyes of Kraken fans for how he’s turning out in Seattle. 

Filip Chytil 

Honestly, what else do we have to say about Filip Chytil other than we hope and pray he is able to live a long, healthy life, with or without hockey. Concussions were a big concern for this player going into the season after barely playing at all last year. On paper, the fact that he suited up for 41 games for the Rangers sounds great and the 11 goals and nine assists were great as well. However, he still spent time battling with injuries and went on to collect another season ending concussion during his time in Vancouver. As much as it sucks, the Rangers were wise to move on when they did, but (and I can’t stress it enough) stay healthy, Fil. He gets a C+

Victor Mancini

On a more positive note, what a pleasant surprise Victor Mancini turned out to be! A fifth round draft pick no one really expected much from turned some heads and made the team out of camp. In 15 games, Mancini picked up his first NHL goal along with five assists before eventually settling into a more prominent part of the lineup in Hartford. He became a throw-in for the J.T. Miller trade, which all things considered, is just a part of doing business. The Rangers have Adam Fox, Braden Schneider, Will Borgen and E.J. Emery in the pipeline. There’s not a guaranteed spot in the lineup for Mancini and frankly, it’s not a sure thing he becomes a full-time NHLer so, it is what it is. Mancini gets an A for his brief Rangers tenure. 

Ryan Lindgren 

With all said and done, especially when you consider the fact that he was essentially acquired as a throw-in himself in the Rick Nash trade, Ryan Lindgren was a fantastic Ranger. This season however, was not fantastic for him. In 54 games, he had two goals and 17 assists, which by his metric is pretty good. However, his nightly showings failed both the eye test and the analytics one as he just wasn’t getting it done the way the Rangers needed him to, especially if either party involved saw any kind of future here. 

Which brings us to precisely why this trade had to happen. The Rangers have been down a similar road before with Dan Girardi and Marc Staal. An extension of any kind would have likely further tarnished his tenure as a Ranger so while Lindgren was beloved by a great deal of the fan base, they probably traded him at the right time. Unfortunately, the majority of those 54 games were not great for Lindgren so he gets a low C-. 

Jimmy Vesey

We can share similar sentiments with Jimmy Vesey as we did Lindgren. At his best, Vesey was a solid, well-respected depth piece for the Rangers. At his worst, he was just another guy in the lineup and at this stage in the game, Vesey was beginning to out-stay his welcome. The Rangers had plenty of younger guys that would benefit more from the ice time Vesey was getting. In 33 games, he registered four goals and two assists, which isn’t terrible for a fourth liner. But considering Jonny Brodzinski and Sam Carrick went on to average 20 points each throughout a more complete season, it became clear the Rangers were fine to move on here. Vesey gets a D+

Reilly Smith

On paper, Reilly Smith was everything the Rangers needed heading into this season: a veteran right winger with Cup experience that could fill out the top-nine. In 58 games, he registered 10 goals and 19 assists which is fine for someone who isn’t expected to be a star on this team. However, his all around play was becoming more of a problem than a solution, to the point where even he became a healthy scratch during the team’s ugliest stretch. The second goal of that 2-0 loss to Nashville still stands out to me as a glaring error from Smith where he got walked at the blue line by Adam Wilsby. As a “well-established” vet, that just can’t happen. 

I actually wrote a full piece suggesting the Rangers should’ve flipped Smith in the middle of December that never ended up being published, but this was the long and short of it was: Smith was falling into the category of veterans on this team that weren’t doing enough to justify playing on a nightly basis but weren’t being held accountable like the younger players often do. As such, he became just an out of place part of this team which made the eventual trade a no-brainer. He gets a C- weighed heavily by his point production alone.