To say the New York Rangers were nervous after Chris Kreider took a nasty hit to the head from his own teammate Mika Zibanejad early in the second period on Saturday would be an understatement. Not only because losing one of your best forwards isn’t wonderful news but because Kreider is arguably the biggest name available at this year’s NHL Trade Deadline.
Should Kreider have gone down with any sort of serious head injury, the entire landscape of the deadline could have changed.
The good news is, Kreider’s injury is not as bad as immediately feared. In fact, head coach David Quinn told the media, including The New York Posts’ Brett Cygralis, “He wasn’t anywhere near as bad as I thought he would be. After the game ended, we talked, and it’s a lot better than I anticipated.”
Quinn added that Kreider did not suffer a concussion and for now, they’re calling his injury a day-to-day thing.
Will The Rangers Trade Kreider?
Injury or not, the Rangers might decide not to let to Kreider go. There has been talk that throughout the process of more than eight teams calling about Kreider’s availability that the Rangers still weren’t sold on selling him.
And, while we’d never wish an injury upon anyone, that he’s not hurt complicates things a touch. Sure, it gives the Rangers options and teams will continue to call knowing he’s not in rough shape. But, had he been hurt, the decision would have been simple because multiple teams would have walked away.
The Rangers now have only a couple of weeks to let teams know Kreider is fine, take offers and weigh their options. If he’s moved, the Rangers have to try and get the best haul possible. Considering he’s the top rental on the market (assuming Taylor Hall’s name doesn’t pop back up) and Kreider is relatively healthy, that shouldn’t be difficult to do.
** Note: Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic has predicted Kreider moves to St. Louis for a 2020 first-round pick plus RW Jordan Kyrou. If accurate, it would hard to say no to a deal like that, even if the first-rounder is a late one.
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