Rangers captain Jacob Trouba addresses trade rumors and team's willingness to make deals

GREENBURGH – Sixty-eight days later, Jacob Trouba stood in front of a group of reporters attempting to answer as diplomatically as possible what it is like to learn his general manager is willing to part ways with him.

It was a case of deja vu.

Following a well-attended optional practice at the MSG Training Center before the team boarded a flight to Raleigh, N.C., ahead of Wednesday night’s game against the Hurricanes, Trouba was asked to gauge his and the team’s reaction to the news that team president and GM Chris Drury informed the league’s other 31 GMs that the Rangers were willing to listen to trade proposals for– but not limited to – Trouba and Chris Kreider.

“I can’t really answer for others,” Trouba said. “For me, it’s part of the game. I’m happy to be here. Love this group. Love playing here. We’ve had a decent start to the season. Like I said we’ve kind of hit a rough patch and got to work our way out of it.”

The unasked question is who could be around to help the Rangers (12-7-1) begin to right themselves. The Rangers have lost three straight and are 7-7-0 since Oct. 24. They are in fourth place in their division and occupy the first wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference, but they're just two points clear of the playoff line.

Which evidently is cause for concern in the executive suites.

Elliotte Friedman, the NHL insider for Sportsnet in Canada, posted on X on Monday afternoon that, after Saturday’s 6-2 loss to the Oilers in Edmonton, the Rangers informed the rest of the league they would consider trade offers for a player or players on the roster.

Friedman’s bombshell was subsequently confirmed and expounded upon by multiple New York and national outlets before Monday night’s 5-2 loss to the Blues.

The additional reporting revealed Drury had sent a memo to the league’s other 31 general managers announcing the organization’s willingness to engage in trade discussions that could be potentially franchise-altering.

Which is why, even though they acknowledged the news had become public, the Rangers collectively shrugged.

“It’s outside noise,” Braden Schneider said.

Peter Laviolette said: “We talk about things. There’s things are in our control. That’s not in our control.”

Right. Those things are Drury’s purview.

Any potential trade or trades will be difficult for Drury to navigate for several reasons. The first and most obvious is financial. According to industry database PuckPedia.com, Kreider is in the fifth year of a seven-year, $45 million contract ($6.5 million annual average value) and Trouba is in the sixth year of a seven-year, $56 million deal ($8 million AAV).

Secondly, both Kreider and Trouba have no-trade clauses in their contracts. Kreider has a 15-team no-trade list. Trouba can veto trades to 15 teams this season. The number drops to 12 for next season.

Trouba has already blocked one potential trade.

The 30-year-old defenseman invoked his trade protection on June 30, to block an off-season deal that it is believed would have sent him to Detroit. On Sept. 19, the first day of training camp, Trouba met with reporters and said the proposed trade was “part of the business of hockey.”

Blue notes

Kreider (upper body) and Filip Chytil (upper body) will travel with the team, Laviolette said …D Chad Ruhwedel was recalled from AHL Hartford. F Matt Rempe was sent down in the corresponding roster move.