NEW YORK _ Hours after the Rangers knocked off their Hudson River rivals, the Devils, 5-2, in an emotional Saturday afternoon game at Madison Square Garden, the Blueshirts pulled the trigger on a trade that shipped away fan-favorite forward Mats Zuccarello, sending him to the Dallas Stars in exchange for a second-round pick in this summer's NHL draft and a third-rounder in 2020.
According to TSN's Bob McKenzie, the second-rounder would become a first-round pick if the Stars win two playoff rounds and the third rounder would also become a first round pick if Dallas re-signs Zuccarello, who is scheduled to become an unrestricted free agent July 1. TSN's Pierre LeBrun tweeted that the Rangers are retaining 30 percent of the remainder of Zuccarello's $4.5 million salary.
The deal was announced shortly after 9 p.m., and it is the first big one for the Rangers, who are also expected to trade away forward Kevin Hayes and defenseman Adam McQuaid _ and maybe others _ before Monday's 3 p.m. NHL trade deadline. All three players are scheduled to be unrestricted free agents this summer, and all were held out of the game against the Devils.
"Like we talked about before the game _ we all knew this day was a possibility," Rangers coach David Quinn said in his postgame press conference. "It doesn't make it less emotional."
The Rangers, who had played poorly in Thursday's 4-1 home loss to Minnesota _ in which Zuccarello, Hayes and McQuaid had all played _ spoke in the locker room afterward about how difficult it was to play the game knowing the three players would most likely be leaving the team.
"It's not easy," Mika Zibanejad said when asked how hard it was to play through the emotions surrounding the trades that seemed imminent. "I think everyone has their own way of dealing with it. Personally, I think last game (Thursday) was a little bit of the same feeling, knowing that this could happen. Especially (Zuccarello) ... a really good friend of mine, and not seeing him being a part of the team before the game, and being out there with us, it's � the same goes for (Hayes) and (McQuaid). It's tough."
