Rangers' Mika Zibanejad trade plans get update after Olympics
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Rangers' Mika Zibanejad trade plans get update after Olympics originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
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The New York Rangers already grabbed the NHL trade headlines before the league's roster freeze when they sent Artemi Panarin to the Los Angeles Kings.
They certainly aren't expected to be done, and Mika Zibanejad could be next.
Zibanejad's stock was helped by his play at the Olympics for Sweden, writes Matt Larkin of Daily Faceoff.
The 32-year old center scored three goals in five games for Sweden in Milan, and he looked sharp throughout.
If the Rangers do indeed want to trade him, that can only help the cause.
"He can still be an above-average scoring-line center in the NHL, and the Winter Games shed additional positive light on a season that has spiked his value," Larkin writes.
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The problem for Zibanejad, as Larkin also points out, is his contract.
"Even as the Broadway Blueshirts retool their roster, having already dealt Artemi Panarin and Carson Soucy, Zibanejad is a long shot to get moved given he still has four years left on his contract at a hefty $8.5-million cap hit, with all that remaining term making salary retention an icky ask of the Rangers," Larkin writes.
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It'll end up being a balancing act for a team that might want Zibanejad. Does the money equal the value?
Zibanejad is on his best points pace in three years for the Rangers, and that's despite being on a struggling team.
It seems like he could definitely still be a key contributor to a winning team, if the acquiring side of a deal could handle the cost.
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