Steve Paulus

Trades are great fodder for conversation, especially when they involve the New York Rangers. Good trade? Bad trade? Who won? Who lost? Of course, sometimes it takes years to really assess success or failure. There are a lot of examples. When the Buffalo Sabres traded Ryan O’Reilly to St. Louis and he was a catalyst for the Blues’ 2019 Cup win, the Sabres were lambasted for a bad deal. Not so fast.

The New York Rangers sit in third place in the Metropolitan Division with 106 points and two games left to play. With second place almost out of reach,  most consider these few remaining games meaningless except for the risk of injury. As Blueline Station reader Ian M. pointed out, the Rangers’ final point total could have huge implications for the playoffs. We are talking about home-ice advantage. The Rangers own the fifth-best record when it comes to point total, but that could change.

Use your ← → (arrows) to browse Including the New York Rangers, there are still 23 teams contending for 16 playoff spots. As we look ahead to the Blueshirts’ second straight postseason appearance, each potential opponent brings intangibles if they were to meet the Rangers. Let’s rank the “it” factor for teams we would be potentially facing in the playoffs. There are three teams still in contention we didn’t include in the list.