Rangers’ Chris Kreider breaks silence on injury, trade chatter

The New York Rangers made some headlines by declaring that they are open for business, with Chris Kreider’s name being brought up specifically, in part because he does not have a no-movement clause in his contract. Kreider has since been scratched with an upper-body injury for the Rangers, and the timing of that, along with the trade rumors, have fans skeptical about the legitimacy of the injury. Kreider set the record straight, saying that he has been dealing with back problems since training camp, and they are trying to resolve the problem now.

“Back spasms,” Chris Kreider said, via Mollie Walker of the New York Post. “… Back locked up on me — Sacrum. Few games back it was lumbar [spine, the lower back made up of five or six vertebrae that support most of the body’s weight and allow for movement] and then during training came it was thoraxes [the chest, or the part of the body between the next and the abdomen]. … Very independent, annoying things. So we’re working on it. Done a couple things to remedy it so it doesn’t happen anymore.”

The Rangers have struggled as of late despite a solid start to the season, and the five-on-five play has been lackluster. That has been a concern in recent years as well, even though the team made deep runs in the playoffs. Kreiders’ line mate, Mika Zibanejad has struggled mightily this season, but he has a no-movement clause, so he is not on the table to be traded.

Chris Kreider addresses Rangers’ trade rumors

Kreider is not the only one seemingly on the trade block, as Jacob Trouba and Ryan Lindgren have been floated as well. Kreider is no stranger to trade buzz, as he was heavily expected to be traded in 2020 at the deadline before surprisingly signing an extension with New York. Unsurprisingly, he said it does not impact his play on the ice.

“There’s guys in here who will say there are games where they come in and they feel great and they don’t play well,” Kreider said, via Walker. “… There’s games where they’re under the weather, they’re sick, maybe they’re a little banged up and all of a sudden the puck is following them around. Body knows what to do, just got to do it your own way and let it do it.”

As far as the Rangers’ struggles, Kreider had a blunt answer for that as well, saying that it is good for them to work through those issues now.

“I think it’s pretty obvious there’s frustration, angst, tension,” Kreider said, via Walker. “Good. We’re 20 games in. Let’s go through this s*** now and figure out who we are. We had the best regular season in the history of an Original Six franchise last year, won a Presidents’ Trophy and didn’t go as far as we would’ve liked. We’re getting exposed right now. Our warts are out there and teams are picking on the things we don’t do well and we’ve gotten away from the things we do do well. … We don’t necessarily know what this is right now, right? This could just be part of the story. We look back at this and say, ‘This made us better.'”

The Rangers face the Carolina Hurricanes on Wednesday to try to end their struggles.