The New York Rangers won the Presidents' Trophy for the best regular-season win-loss record and were the Eastern Conference's No. 1 seed.
The team as we know it, though, may look different next season.
Emily Kaplan of ESPN reported that New York is shopping captain Jacob Trouba and winger Kaapo Kakko.
Larry Brooks of the New York Post seconded the report on Kakko, adding that the team is "aggressively shopping" him. He added that there is movement on a trade to send Trouba to the Detroit Red Wings.
Arthur Staple and Peter Baugh of The Athletic reported that the Rangers' motivation for the moves is to free up cap space to make a splash at the start of free agency Monday. They noted that the team is high on winger Jake Guentzel. To add him, the organization will have to free up extra cap space to go along with the $12 million-plus it already has.
In doing so, the team risks stunting what made it a Cup contender this season.
Trouba played in just 69 games and tallied only 19 points, but he brought a steadiness to the defensive side of the puck. He is a physical presence on the ice, someone who can send a message with one hit and set the tone for the rest of the team.
More importantly, he is the captain and if the team is ready to send him packing just two years after giving him that title, it sends a questionable message to the rest of the locker room.
Kakko just signed a one-year qualifying offer with the team, but that does not secure his place on the roster for next season. He played 21 games less than a season ago and scored 21 fewer points. He did, however, finish with a plus-6 rating.
The Finnish player brought depth to the team at a key position and gave the Rangers 13:16 of ice time. Trouba is a locker room leader and the face of their defensive efforts.
Sending them packing while star-hunting in an attempt to load up for a championship push reflects the team's desire to hoist its first Stanley Cup since 1994, but it also threatens to mess with roster depth and team chemistry, two elements as important to winning a title as the number of stars any squad has on the ice at any given time.
The Rangers' success was one of the best stories in the league in 2023-24.
A roster upheaval may not behoove an organization that has made just about every other correct move over the last two seasons.
