The Rangers have finally cut bait on the Will Borgen move, and this time the exit comes with draft capital attached.
New York dealt Borgen to Boston after a stretch that never really lived up to the price or the role he was asked to fill. The Rangers had brought him in back in December of 2024 in the Kaapo Kakko trade with Seattle, a deal that stunned their fan base then and looks even stranger now.
They doubled down soon after, handing Borgen a five-year, $20.5 million extension after just 17 games on Broadway. Less than two years later, they’re already out.
The return is a pair of picks, and there’s some movement built into the package. The Rangers get a 2027 second-round pick and a 2028 third-round pick, though that third can become a 2028 second-round pick if Boston reaches the conference final in either 2026-27 or 2027-28 and Borgen appears in 50% of the team’s playoff games. So the ceiling here is two second-rounders, and the floor is a second and a third.
On top of that, New York clears Borgen from the roster, which may be the biggest win of all. He is signed at $4.1 million for the next four years, and the Rangers were getting third-pair results while using him like a second-pair defenseman. In 75 games this season, he scored five goals and finished with 15 points, which is a career-high in goals but actually a step back from the 13 points he had in just 51 games the season before.
The underlying numbers backed up the eye test. In his year-end report card, it was noted that "he finished the year with a 50.17 GF%, 45.17 CF%, and 47.49 xGF% per Evolving-Hockey." Those numbers weren’t disastrous on their own, but they weren’t enough for the role he was occupying.
The timing of the move also fits the bigger picture on the blue line. After acquiring Sean Durzi as part of the Vincent Trocheck trade, the Rangers had to make room somewhere. Now the defense has a very different look heading into the season, with Adam Fox and Vladislav Gavrikov set to anchor the top pair and Durzi alongside Marcus Pettersson on the second pair.
That leaves the third pair wide open. Alberts Smits should get a real shot, with Matthew Robertson and Drew Fortescue competing on the left side.
Braden Schneider is still an RFA, and if he signs, he would take the right-side spot. There’s always a chance the Rangers go in another direction there, but moving Borgen makes Schneider’s return feel more likely.
However it shakes out, New York is in a better place today than it was a week ago. The new defense still has to prove itself on the ice, but the Rangers have at least solved one problem: they are no longer paying Will Borgen.
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