The Rangers announced today that they made two separate deals, sending Jordan Owens to Detroit for forward Kris Newbury and Miika Wiikman, along with a seventh round pick to Phoenix for veteran defenseman Anders Eriksson.
Neither move is expected to impact the Rangers, though both have NHL experience. The 35 year old Eriksson has played in 564 NHL regular season games over 12 seasons, recording 22 goals and 152 assists to go with 242 penalty minutes. The Swedish born blueliner has spent limited time with the Coyotes this year, picking up 3 assists in 12 games.
The 28 year old Newbury comes to New York with 48 NHL games split between Toronto and Detroit, picking up 4 goals and 3 assists to go with his 64 penalty minutes.
Both players have been assigned to Hartford, likely to try and reinforce a team that is currently in a four game losing streak and a 1-7-2 record in their last ten games.
In Owens the Rangers give up a smallish checking forward who earned an NHL contract last summer after working his way up from Charlotte. The 23 year old winger had made a living with his skating and forechecking, but had provided limited offensive in his tenure with the Wolf Pack.
Wiikman caught the attention of the Rangers in 2005-06 with a strong performance in the Finnish SM-Liiga playoffs. The team attempted to bring him over the following summer, but missed the deadline to sign him to a North American contract and saw him return to Finland to complete his commitments.
The Swedish born netminder returned to play for the Wolf Pack the following season and showed some early promise, earning an NHL contract in 2008-09. Wiikman struggled in his second season with the Wolf Pack, and gradually was pushed down the depth chart with the arrival of Chad Johnson and Alex Auld.
Notes
Eriksson was invited to Rangers training camp back in 2005-06, but failed to earn a contract, and he went on to split games between Springfield of the AHL and Magnitogorsk in the Russian Super League.
None of the four players moved today are under contract for the 2010-11 season. Wiikman follows former Wolf Pack netminder Al Montoya to Phoenix, in what is the third straight season in which the Coyotes and Rangers have made a deadline deal.
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