Chris Kreider ending up in Montreal was never going to be a shock for Rangers fans, but the move carries a little extra sting now that he’s wearing a Canadiens sweater.
The fit makes sense on paper. Kreider had made it known through the rumor mill that he wanted to stay on the East Coast, and Boston looked like a natural destination.
Montreal, though, had the kind of behind-the-scenes connections that helped push the deal across the finish line. Jeff Gorton, once the Rangers’ GM, is now the Canadiens’ President of Hockey Operations, and Jim Ramsay, a longtime trainer for the Blueshirts, is also with Montreal.
Those ties helped bring in the former 50-goal scorer.
For Rangers fans, that means Kreider isn’t just a former favorite somewhere else. He’s now in position to see the Rangers often, and that creates a very different kind of storyline.
He had chances to torment his old team while with the Ducks, but those were limited. This is something else entirely.
Now he’ll get regular cracks at the Rangers, and that alone gives him the chance to remind them what they lost when he was pushed out the door.
Still, this isn’t really about revenge from Kreider’s side. The better word might be karma.
He wasn’t plotting a move to Montreal just to get back at the Rangers. His decision came down to practicality: he wanted the East and he wanted a contender.
That could have pointed him toward Buffalo, Carolina or Tampa, but Montreal was the one that came together.
That’s what makes the whole thing feel a little like something out of Seinfeld.
There’s also the possibility that Kreider and the Canadiens get their shot to flip the script on that infamous 2014 incident involving Carey Price. After being the villain in Montreal for so long, Kreider now has a chance to change the story.
If that happens, it won’t sit well with Rangers fans. And maybe, just maybe, that’s the sort of consequence Chris Drury should have seen coming. Not because Kreider was destined to knock Igor Shesterkin out of a game, but because burning bridges is rarely the cleanest way to do business.
In Other News...
Rangers Rookie Weekend Raised One Big Question About Their Young Talent
Liam Greentree gave the Rangers a bit of a bright spot in an otherwise rough Rookie Series weekend at PPL Center, scoring his first goal in a 4-1 loss to the Flyers prospects. New York dropped both games in the two-game set, including a 3-2 defeat on Saturday, but the weekend still offered a look at several of the organizations younger players and where they stand as camp begins to sharpen the picture.
Danai Shaiikov helped keep things competitive in goal with several key saves, even as the Rangers were unable to slow Philadelphia enough to swing either result. Greentrees finish will draw attention, especially after a weekend when the group needed more offense and more consistency, and the bigger question now is which young players can turn those flashes into something that carries into the rest of camp. [Read more 🡒]
Rangers May Have A Camp Sleeper In Their Crowded Center Battle
The Rangers prospects left the annual Rookie Series against Philadelphia empty-handed after a two-game sweep, but one of the more notable takeaways for New York came from Dylan Roobroeck. The Hartford Wolf Pack center was around the puck, scored in the series and showed the kind of edge that can get a coachs attention, which matters for a player trying to break into a crowded camp battle down the middle.
Roobroeck has been a steady presence in Hartford over the past two AHL seasons, and that consistency is part of why he is being viewed as a dark-horse candidate to earn NHL looks. If he brings that same blend of production and reliability into training camp, he could force his way into the conversation for games with the Rangers sooner than expected. [Read more 🡒]
Rangers Rookie Camp Just Got More Complicated For One Key Prospect
Rookie camp always has a way of sorting out the hopefuls quickly, and the Rangers have already run into a complication with one of the players trying to make a case for himself. Cole Beaudoin entered camp with a real chance to turn heads, but an injury picked up in a rookie tournament game has slowed that push and made the early days of evaluation a little less clean for the front office.
Beaudoin came to the organization from Utah in the Vincent Trocheck trade, which gave his camp an added edge because he was more than just another body skating for attention. Even with the door still open, any missed time at this stage matters, and the Rangers now have to balance what theyve seen from him against how quickly he can get back on the ice and back into the mix. [Read more 🡒]