Montreal Canadiens Making Strong Push for Two Rangers Prospects

Just the other day, New York sports' writing legend Larry Brooks reported that New York Rangers prospect Nils Lundkvist has no intentions of reporting to camp this summer. Naturally, the rumor mill has been firing on all cylinders, suggesting possible landing spots for the young Swede. Another issue facing the Rangers' prospect pipeline, is the fate of Russian standout Vitaly Kravtsov, who New York drafted 9th overall in 2018. The Rangers have yet to work out a long-term solution for Kravtsov, leading many to suspect that he won't be a Ranger for long.

Enter new Montreal Canadiens GM Kent Hughes. Hughes has not displayed any semblance of shyness in the opening months of his reign in Montreal, already making big splashes in the trade market involving D Alexander Romanov and former 3rd overall pick C Kirby Dach. Independent hockey journalist Patrick Lortie reports that Hughes has been in talks with Rangers GM Chris Drury for weeks, suggesting they are 'high' on Lundkvist and that they would love to poach Kravtsov as well.

As Lortie suggests, the Habs do not exactly boast a bevy of enticing 'win-now' pieces with whom they are willing to part, so this sort of trade would certainly require a fair bit of work to pull off. Josh Anderson's name has swirled for some time, and he would absolutely fit the Rangers' style of play. However, the Habs would have to retain half of his salary and likely add one or two more pieces to make a trade of this magnitude work. The Habs do possess 11 draft picks for 2023, as well as an abundance of centers, an area in which New York is skint. Could we see a Christian Dvorak or Jake Evans in play? Maybe, maybe not.

The Rangers present a very interesting case. They made the Eastern Conference Final last season after a short rebuild, losing in seven games to the Tampa Bay Lightning. En masse, they have a fairly young team, but their core players -- Kreider, Panarin, Zibanejad, etc -- are all over or around 30 years of age, so they need to attack their contending window while they can. So, as far as Kravtsov and Lundkvist go, they might be better off selling the two of them for the best prime-aged assets they can, ideally up the middle. As it stands, Zibanejad, Filip Chytil and newly signed Vincent Trocheck make up their center group. Not bad, but something tells me they would like to add at least one more quality center to the mix. I could see them acquiring a goalie as well. Obviously, Igor Shesterkin is a stud, but can they rely on Jaroslav Halak to fill in the gaps?

2022-23 is a big year for the blue-shirts. The expectations of their fanbase are reasonably high, and they are set to play in one the toughest divisions yet again. What they end up doing with their two disgruntled prospects, only time will unveil.

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