Rangers Trade Ryan Lindgren and Jimmy Vesey to Colorado Avalanche

The New York Rangers have started their expected sell-off ahead of the upcoming trade deadline, and today traded Ryan Lindgren, Jimmy Vesey, and the rights to prospect Hank Kempf to the Colorado Avalanche.

The primary piece in the return for the Rangers is defenseman Calvin de Haan, and a pair of draft picks which will be whatever pick ends up being the best one determined once the season is over.

de Haan has appeared in 676 games throughout his career, and can be a perfectly capable top-four defenseman – and likely top-pair for the rest of this season if the team doesn't flip him – which fits the profile of what the Rangers were looking for.

Juuso Pärssinen is an interesting piece to get back, and it is possible the Rangers see something in the 24-year-old center who has tallied 48 points in 126 career games. He debut with the Nashville Predators in 2022-23 and posted a line of 6-19-25 in 45 games, but has only 17 points in his last 81 games.

In this trade the Rangers moved on from Lindgren, a player who was a warrior and quite capable for a number of seasons, but his effectiveness has declined significantly in the last two years. They did pretty well here, and Chris Drury deserves some credit.

They also moved on from Vesey, a player who was much better in his second stint with the Blueshirts, but for whatever reason fell out of favor with Peter Laviolette this year.

His departure, and likely Reilly Smith's in the next few days, creates more room for players like Arthur Kaliyev and Brennan Othmann to show what they can do, and that's what is best for the future of the franchise.

In the coming days we will see how much further Drury looks to go in terms of stripping down the roster, and making a move like this early frees up time to try and extract value for players who have greater value to contending teams.