While there was nothing that could be added to the Rangers on the NHL trade deadline day, General Manager Chris Drury did make a couple of depth moves to provide a little extra depth and bolster the Hartford Wolf Pack’s quest to return to he playoffs for the first time since the 2014-15 season.
Over the past week, the Rangers have traded away Austin Rueschhoff and Andy Welinski and AHL contracted forward Alex Whelan, and replaced them with Cooper Zech, Adam Clendening and Will Lockwood. They also reassigned forward Jake Leschyshyn last weekend.
But Drury wasn’t done, and made a handful of moves today to close out the roster for the final run to the playoffs.
First up was a swap of Swedish forwards, with the Rangers sending Gustav Rydahl to the Avalanche in exchange for left wing Anton Blidh. Blidh has appeared in 84 NHL games, including 14 this season with Colorado. He has yet to register a point ths season, but has 4 goals and 8 assists, all with the Boston Bruins, prior to joining the Avalanche this season.
Blidh played one season for Frolunda with Henrik Lundqvist‘s brother Joel, as well as former Ranger Christian Backman. Coincidentally Pierre Engvall, who just joined the Islanders, also played two games on that team back in the 2014-15 season.
In the second move of the day, Drury basically exchanged the AHL contracted Giuttari for the NHL contracted Wyatt Kalynuk. Kalynuk has 4 goals and 5 assists in 26 NHL games, all with the Chicago Blackhawks. He’s also a former team mate of fellow Pack defenseman Ty Emberson, as well as current Ranger defenseman K’Andre Miller.
Both players come over in the final year of their contracts at the league minimum of $750,000. Kalynuk will be an RFA, while Blidh will be a UFA.
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