NHL Notebook: Rangers trade Carson Soucy to Islanders

The New York Islanders have acquired a defenceman from the New York Rangers.

On Monday, the Rangers began their sell off, trading defenceman Carson Soucy to the Islanders for a 2026 third-round pick. It’s just the fourth time the two rivals have traded since the Islanders entered the league during the 1972-73 season.

The teams are heading in opposite directions. After making the Eastern Conference Finals in 2024, the Rangers began trading core players like Jacob Trouba and Chris Kreider, ironically both to the Anaheim Ducks. Their star, Artemi Panarin will likely be traded as well.

On the other hand, the Islanders got incredibly lucky in the draft lottery, landing the first overall pick. With that pick, they selected Matthew Schaefer, who has turned their fortunes around immediately. As it stands, the Islanders are third in the Metropolitan division, with a 28-19-5 record, while the Rangers sit at the bottom of the conference with 50 points.

Soucy, 31, was having a decent season with the Rangers, scoring three goals and eight points in 46 games. While it was well below his career-best of 10 goals and 21 points set in 2021-22, he’s a solid depth addition for the Islanders.

Oilers defencemen score a hat trick in back-to-back games

On Monday in a game against the Anaheim Ducks, Edmonton Oilers defenceman Mattias Ekholm scored his first career hat trick thanks to an empty netter in a 7-4 win. Two nights before, Evan Bouchard scored a hat trick in a six point game. This was the first time in National Hockey League history that two defencemen on the same team have scored a hat trick in back-to-back games.

The funny thing is, the Oilers most recent hat trick before Bouchard’s on Saturday was over 20 years ago, when Marc-André Bergeron scored all three of the Oilers goals in a 5-3 loss to the Ottawa Senators.

Not just that, but the Oilers also set a different record in Monday’s game, scoring the four quickest goals by defenceman, as Ekholm scored twice, Darnell Nurse scored once, and Spencer Stastney scored his first goal as an Oiler in a span of three minutes and 49 seconds. It’s just the sixth time in league history that a team has gotten four goals from defencemen, and the first time since November, 2000.

Still, the Oilers don’t look like the team they have been the past two seasons, as they are the lone team in the league who hasn’t managed a three-game winning streak.

Kings and Blue Jackets postpone Monday’s game

On Monday afternoon, the NHL announced that the game between the Los Angeles Kings and Columbus Blue Jackets will be postponed to Mar. 9.