NHL Rumors: Frank Seravalli outlines New York Rangers' trade strategy ahead of deadline

The New York Rangers have completely free-fallen from their solid 12-4 start to the 2024-25 season. And it's all the more bizarre considering they began the season with essentially the same team as the President's Trophy-winning roster from 2023-24 that advanced to the Eastern Conference Final.

They've lost 15 of their last 19 games and now sit three games below the .500 mark with a record of 16-19-1.

NHL analyst Frank Seravalli of The Fourth Period was recently asked what he believes the Rangers' plans are for the NHL Trade Deadline, which is now just over 60 days away.

According to Seravalli, the Rangers have essentially punted on this season and will trend toward being sellers with an eye on the future.

"Right now, they're trending to be sellers. But, I still don't believe that Chris Drury is going to sit back and do nothing. I think they're going to be buyers for the long haul, but maybe not fixing this season, if that makes any sense."

"They're not thinking all in for this season, they're thinking about what that looks like moving forward."

The Rangers are in action on Thursday night at Madison Square Garden, hosting the Original 6 rival Boston Bruins.

The New York Rangers have already made a pair of high-profile trades

As they continued to nose-dive in the standings, the Rangers have already made a pair of high-profile trades.

They sent captain Jacob Trouba to the Anaheim Ducks in exchange for defenseman Urho Vaakanainen and a fourth-round Draft pick; they also traded former second overall Draft pick Kaapo Kakko to the Seattle Kraken in exchange for Will Borgen and draft selections.

Kakko later acknowledged after the trade was completed that the Rangers simply weren't playing well enough as a team and that changes were on the way.

“The team was not playing well enough,” Kakko said. “I was kind of waiting (thinking) something is going to happen, and then I knew also it might be me.”

“You don’t have your captain anymore over there; he’s a good guy, everyone liked him,” he said. “There were a lot of things going on. When you’re losing games, it’s never a good thing. You want to play, you want to win. So, that was kind of hard for everyone.”

Ironically, Kakko had also called out coach Peter Laviolette for making him a healthy scratch when other players had poorer defensive numbers.