When the New York Rangers sent a conditional 2025 first-round pick to the Vancouver Canucks as part of the deal to acquire J.T. Miller, they left open the option to choose to keep the pick if it landed in the top 13 of this year’s draft.
Ultimately, Vancouver chose to re-invest that newfound draft capital into an asset for their current roster, acquiring defenseman Marcus Pettersson from the Pittsburgh Penguins in exchange for New York’s pick.
That left Rangers general manager Chris Drury in the position of having to choose whether the 2025 12th overall pick or an unprotected 2026 first rounder in a draft seen as much stronger would go not to a cross-conference foe, but to a Metropolitan division rival.
Drury and New York have reportedly made their decision, as according to Larry Brooks of The New York Post, the team notified the league that it will give the Penguins this year’s pick.
On Tuesday’s episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE, host Tyler Yaremchuk and Insider and President of Hockey Content Frank Seravalli discussed what the thought process may have been for the Rangers in opting to keep next year’s pick and cede this year’s to Pittsburgh.
Tyler Yaremchuk: Some news coming today about the New York Rangers and the decision they had to make with their draft pick. They have to send a draft pick to Pittsburgh to complete the J.T. Miller trade that they made with Vancouver. Their option was, they could send 12th overall this year to Pittsburgh, or they could say “We want to select 12th overall,” but then next year’s pick becomes unprotected. Is this just the Rangers taking the safer option and saying “Hey, there’s no world where we accidentally give up a top five or the number one overall pick?”
Frank Seravalli: I think this is the New York Rangers de-risking themselves. To be fair, if you’re going to give up the 12th overall pick, do it in a year in which the draft is somewhat mediocre, below average… It’s not a draft that everyone is clamoring to be in. There’s multiple, multiple first round picks that are available right now today, teams that are willing to move, and then there will be more of teams willing to move up and down based on how the draft board shakes out on Friday night. The last thing you want is to be handing the Pittsburgh Penguins an unprotected pick that could become Gavin McKenna. With the Rangers hoping to be better next season, that also means now that you have a trade chip in 2026 to trade at the deadline or whenever else to make your team even better.
You can watch the full segment and the rest of the episode here…
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