Rangers acquire former first-round pick from Kraken

With a flurry of trade activity on Wednesday, the Rangers have decided to enter into the madness. New York has acquired Alexander Wennberg from the Seattle Kraken.

The Kraken will receive the Rangers' second-round pick in 2024 and New York’s fourth-round pick in 2025. Seattle will also retain 50% of Wennberg’s remaining salary, bringing his AAV down to $2.25M with the Rangers.

Since the Rangers lost center Filip Chytil in November due to a concussion, the team has been looking to fill the void for nearly the entire season. The organization tried Nick Bonino and Jonny Brodzinski in this role but had their eye on a bona fide forward to add down the middle.

He was not as much of an offensive threat as he was during his time with the Columbus Blue Jackets, but the addition of Wennberg should help in multiple areas of the Rangers lineup. Initially, he is readily available to center the team’s third line and will also be able to serve on the team’s penalty kill unit.

Coming over to Seattle as an unrestricted free agent in the 2021-22 offseason, Wennberg is in the last year of a three-year, $13.5M contract. Throughout his tenure in Seattle, Wennberg has played in 142 games for the expansion franchise over the last three years, scoring 22 goals and 63 points in the process.

Although Wennberg doesn’t have the amount of success in the dot teams might expect out of their bottom-six centers, his possession metrics show that he brings solid defensive awareness to the table. Wennberg will also be able to help a New York penalty kill unit already in the top five in the league, recording an 83.15% success rate being a man down.

Kraken general manager Ron Francis uses a similar deadline strategy as he did two years ago when he acquired 10 draft selections leading up to the deadline in 2022. In this deal, Seattle will now have five selections in the first three rounds of the 2024 NHL Draft and 17 selections over the next two years.