In today’s NHL rumors rundown, we look at what the future could hold for some of the New York Rangers players, including Mika Zibanejad and Chris Kreider, as well as a group chat that led to a historic trio of fights at the 4 Nations Face-Off. Elsewhere, it appears that Matthew Tkachuk was banged up at the end of the Canada/USA game on Feb. 15, and is expected to sit out on Feb. 17 as USA takes on Sweden. Finishing off, a former assistant general manager believes that the Carolina Hurricanes, or a few other teams, could get creative with a contract offer for Mikko Rantanen.
Rangers’ Big Contracts Could Be Hard to Move
With question marks about whether or not the Rangers will even be a playoff team this season or not, there are some huge decisions to be made. The future of Chris Kreider, Mika Zibanejad, Reilly Smith, and Ryan Lindgren are all up in the air. The Athletic’s Peter Baugh did a mailbag and addressed some of the biggest question marks around these trades. (from What will Rangers do at trade deadline? Could Chris Kreider be dealt? Mailbag, The Athletic, Feb. 15, 2025).
For Zibanejad, Baugh was pretty blunt about what the options are. If Zibanejad wants to stay, he will, and that is because of his full no-move clause. He did note that his play has improved since the start of January, and the Rangers have tried him alongside J.T Miller, and things are moving in the right direction. Still, it would be hard to move Zibanejad even with his permission. He hasn’t lived up to his $8.5 million cap hit.
When it comes to Kreider, of course, there was the memo sent out to the other teams about his availability, but even since then, he hasn’t done much to improve his trade value. Baugh states that his $6.5 million is tough for a contending team to make space for, and the fact that he has two more seasons doesn’t help either. Kreider has just 16 goals and four assists in 47 games this season. Most can agree that he should be performing better than that, and likely will again in his career, but that play isn’t very appealing to buyers right now.
As for Lindgren and Smith, Baugh believes that if the Rangers are selling any assets at the deadline, it will be their upcoming free agents, and those two would be the likely ones to go.
Group Chat Leads to 3 Fights in 9 Seconds
In the post-game availability after USA’s 3-1 win over Canada at the 4 Nations, Matthew Tkachuk stated that there was a group chat with himself, along with his brother Brady, and J.T. Miller to make a plan to send a message to the Canadians. Prior to last night, the record for the earlier fight in an international best-on-best game was held by Keith Tkachuk at 20 seconds. Well, both of his sons broke that record last night with Matthew’s fight coming two seconds into the game and Brady’s at the three second mark. Miller also beat Keith’s number, which his fight at the nine-second mark.
Related: USA Edges Canada 3-1 in Fight-Filled 4 Nations Affair
During the warmups, Matthew went to center ice and had a word with Brandon Hagel, who are inter-state rivals during the regular season. Michael Russo of The Athletic posted that according to someone from ice level, Brady then asked Sam Bennett, who was on the bench, to go next. He came onto the ice. After that, it appeared that Miller was ready to go with anybody. After a quick scrum in the crease, Miller just dropped his gloves and waited to see who was coming his way.
From an entertainment standpoint, it was awesome. From any other standpoint, it was still awesome.
On the scraps, according to somebody at ice level, Matthew Tkachuk asked Brandon Hagel to fight. After the fight, Brady Tkachuk yelled to Sam Bennett, “We’re going next.” Bennett was on the bench, so he came onto the ice for the faceoff to accept the challenge. And JT Miller was…
— Michael Russo (@RussoHockey) February 16, 2025
The tempo wasn’t nearly the same for the rest of the game. While USA was still extremely physical, it wasn’t to the extent that some expected after the three fights.
Later in the game, Matthew Tkachuk appeared to be banged up on the bench, showing some clear discomfort and frustration. He tried skating during some breaks but didn’t play in the final 12 minutes of the game. Frank Seravalli believes that Tkachuk will not be playing on Feb. 17 against Sweden, especially considering that USA has already clinched a spot in the championship game.
Creative Contract Offers for Rantanen?
Steve Werier, who is a former assistant general manager of the Florida Panthers, weighed in on what the future may hold for Rantanen and his contract status.
Through his piece on PuckPedia, he stated a few things. First of all, he said that the most likely outcome is that the Hurricanes sign Rantanen to an extension in March in the ballpark of an eight-year deal worth $100 million. Outside of that, he did offer some pretty creative options.
Based on the salary cap increase, the maximum salary for a contract is set to be just north of $19 million. Werier suggests that a team, whether it is the Hurricanes or a team with an abundance of cap space like the Chicago Blackhawks, could sign Rantanen to a one-year deal worth $19 million, and have a handshake agreement on another eight years. That type of stuff doesn’t happen with unrestricted free agents, and he noted that with a deal like that, there is certainly a risk that the player doesn’t sign the extension.
He also names the Utah Hockey Club as a team that could look to do the one-year deal tactic as owner Ryan Smith could look to make a huge splash.
Another option that Werier suggests is a sign-and-trade so the receiving team can get the eighth year if they are unable to come close to a deal by July 1. Time will only tell what happens with Rantanen, and while this post was mainly speculative, it shines light on some of the crazy possibilities teams could use to bring in the bonafide superstar.
