Hedman headed out of New York

The Rangers and Blackhawks last night completed a blockbuster trade that included just 2 players. Headed to Chicago is the much heralded defenceman Victor Hedman and coming back to the Big Apple is Anze Kopitar.

"I'd like to start this off by saying that this was a very tough decision to make thanks to the Phoenix Franchise. We had been in discussions with both Chicago and Phoenix (not going to mention names as that would constitute tampering) and the discussions we had been having with Phoenix were constructive to the point where I was really on the fence about what to do. Ultimately the decision was made to go with the Chicago deal as that was not going to cost additional assets. Don't get me wrong, the trade we were discussing with Phoenix was not going to hurt the Rangers franchise at all, it's just that we didn't want to part with the players they were asking for and to their credit had every right to demand their inclusion. In the end, we felt we were swapping one Franchise player for another and only time will tell if the choice we made was the right one."

When asked why trade Hedman, Rangers GM responded

"A little inside info here, but we were prepared to deal the pick at the draft. We had a deal lined up with a team that was specifically targeting Hedman and the player we would have gotten back in that deal was and is very similar in talent to Anze. Both are big, strong talented players and both are very young. That team backed out at the last minute and I don't want to say we were stuck holding the bag, cause any bag carrying Hedman makes you a very lucky team. That said, with Erik Johnson and Shea Weber already on the team we felt we had the core defenceman to build around foing forward. We feel that with Okposo, Booth, Perry and Clowe we have the wingers to build around. We felt that with Spezza we had a core center to build around, however we felt that in order to maximize the wingers we have, we needed that second #1 center or #1A center and believe that Kopitar is that player. There's still work to do as we now have to focus on the up coming season and filling out the rest of the team, most notably defence."

It would seem that the Rangers are not actually done dealing yet.