Ready for bear

The New York Rangers spen the weekend making changes to a roster that had been playing well ten games going 7-2-1.

in the last 7 days, the Rangers have made 4 trades, with one still pending. The list of trades is as follows:

On April 24th, the Rangers addressed the need for an offensive center when they acquired Mike Ribeiro from Columbus Bluejackets for Paul Gaustad and the Pitt 2012 1st round pick.

"Adding Ribeiro was needed as our 2nd line center position was being help by Peverley and while he's a nice player, we did not feel as if he was the right guy for that role. We felt we needed to improve in that spot. This deal did that for us." 

On May 1st, the Rangers learned of the availability of Mikko Koivu who we that had traded to Philadelphia earlier in the season. To acquire Koivu, they traded Rich Peverley, Owen Nolan and defenceman Dimitry Kulikov. In addition to Koivu, the Rangers also acquired Miroslav Satan and the Flyers 5th round pick in 2012.

"When we learned that Koivu was available, we immediately reached out to Philly GM Scott Davidson. While we are both fighting for the division lead along with Pitt, we have never made an issue out of that and if a deal was there to help our teams, regardless of the situation, we have been able to get things done, this deal was no different. In fact, this deal allowed us to pull the trigger on another deal we were not expecting to make. I'll comment on that later."

May 1st, the Rangers trade center Brandon Sutter and prospect Ryan Johansen to Chicago Blackhawks for budding power forward Chris Stewart and the Hawks 5th round pick in 2011.

"We had been seeking a solid physical winger like Chris and had reached out to a few teams, fortunately nothing happened. There was no indication at all that Stewart was going to be available, but we looked at Chicago and the fact that they are currently out of the PO's and thought they they may need a shake up, all teams go through this at one point or another. We were able to agree to the general parameters of the deal fairly quickly. A little tid-bit on how deep Chicago is. Chris Stewart moved from the Hawks 3rd/4th line to the Rangers first line immediately. While the price was heavy, we love Chris's overall game and feel he adds an element to our top line that wasn't there. This is a win-win for both us and the Hawks as they get a veyr good player in Sutter and a solid prospect in Johansen"

May 1st, the Rangers trade center Travis Zajac to the Calgary Flames for winger Milan Michalek and prospects Anton Lander and Evgeny Dadonov.

"To follow up an earlier comment, getting both Riberio and Koivu and having the flexibility to shift Versteeg to center meant that I could address other areas of the team by moving Travis. Trust me, this was not an easy decision. However, we had moved Goose, Pev's and Owen earlier and we needed to get a solid winger back in the fold. Michalek is a solid kid that has wheels, defensive instincts and can score. He can fit on either wing on any of the top three lines and play well."

Trade Pending - Rangers are set to acquire defenceman Andrei Markov from the Columbus Bluejackets for defenceman Hal Gill, prospects Anton Lander and Evgeny Dadonov, and both previously acquired 5th round picks.

"When you can add a defenceman like Markov, you do it. While we had no complaints about our defence, we feel this was a significant upgrade both offensively and defensively. Markov can do (on the defensive side of the puck) what Gill does, as well as Gill does it. AND Markov can generate offense whereas Gill cannot. This is not a knock on Gill, we wish him all the best in Columbus, but we needed to make this deal."