The New York Rangers are in the Eastern Conference final. Their acquisitions at this year's trade deadline have certainly helped them get there.
As Chris Drury made his way around the New York Rangers dressing room on Monday night congratulating each player following the team's Game 7 defeat of the Carolina Hurricanes that booked their ticket to the Eastern Conference final, Andrew Copp delivered a tongue-in-cheek message to his GM:
"Sorry about your first"
Copp, for those unaware, was referring to the conditional 2022 draft pick that brought him to New York from Winnipeg at this year's trade deadline -- a pick that, with the Rangers having now moved into the Final Four, upgrades from a second to a first.
Drury likely won't hold it against him, though.
Copp has been worth every metaphorical penny of his asking price during his time in a Rangers uniform, racking up 18 points in 16 games to close out the regular season in the Big Apple and then chipping in six goals and 12 points in 14 playoff games thus far to help drag his team to within eight wins of a Stanley Cup.
In fact, Copp isn't the only new arrival that has paid immediate dividends for the Rangers through the final stretch of the season and into the playoffs.
Entering the trade deadline locked in a tight divisional race for home-ice advantage with bottom-10 rates in expected goals and scoring chance generation, the Rangers needed help. So, they went out and got it, acquiring Copp, Frank Vatrano, Tyler Motte, and Justin Braun in a series of moves to help bolster their depth and secondary scoring as the playoffs approached.
Two rounds in, and the results speak for themselves.
Copp has obviously been the belle of the ball from an offensive standpoint, making a case for himself as this season's most effective deadline acquisition league-wide. But he's not the only pickup to have played a part in the Rangers' success thus far.
Vatrano has given the Rangers a boost in the secondary scoring department, which was arguably their biggest flaw prior to the deadline, and helped lessen the overall offensive load. Chris Kreider, Mika Zibanejad, and Artemiy Panarin can't carry it all by themselves, after all. Vatrano has helped relieve the pressure somewhat. And that is a crucial trait to have -- especially in the pressure cooker of the playoffs.
A criminally underrated middle-six forward throughout his career, Vatrano fit splendidly in his new surroundings and chipped in eight goals and 13 points in 22 games after the Panthers shipped him to Broadway, effectively deepening the Rangers' forward lineup and giving the team an extra weapon to throw onto the power play in order to strengthen their second unit.
In the playoffs, Vatrano has been that same solid scoring option, even stepping up onto New York's top line alongside Kreider and Zibanejad and not looking entirely out of place.
He's been as versatile as they come. Vatrano's stat line of eight points in 14 playoff games is precisely the type of production the Rangers were lacking in their forward depth prior to his arrival. He's not going to sway games by himself. But, then again, it's not his job to. Instead, Vatrano is a good soldier, giving Gerrard Gallant the luxury of options in his forward lines and an added edge in the matchup game.
Alexis Lafreniere or Filip Chytil no longer need to be shoe-horned into logging top-six minutes that appear most often to be over their head. The load is lessened.
The arrivals of Copp and Vatrano more or less turned the Rangers' forward corps into a game of Tetris, with pretty much every piece falling into their designated spot. And for the price of just a fourth-round pick, in Vatrano's case, Drury managed to find that fit at a bargain rate.
Motte was had for a fourth-rounder, as well. And while the 26-year-old has not had quite the impact that his two deadline-deal counterparts have to this point, his contributions are still crucial nonetheless.
Anchoring the Rangers' fourth line, Motte's only two goals of the postseason have come in some incredibly opportune moments; the first icing New York's 3-1 victory while he was out defending a one-goal lead in the final moments of Game 3, and the second opening the scoring for what would be a five-goal offensive explosion to help the Rangers stave off elimination in Game 6.
Not everyone is going to be a star. Motte certainly isn't. But he's added a steady presence to his team's fourth line, has kept his head somewhat above water in the possession game while his teammates haven't, and has managed to contribute in some extremely vital ways.
What more can you ask from deadline pick-ups?
The goal, when dealing assets for players who may simply walk out the door as free agents in a few months' time, is to make their presence count when the games matter most.
That is precisely what Copp, Vatrano, and Motte have done in their brief tenures with the Rangers thus far. And now, the team is the closest it's been to a Stanley Cup in nearly a decade.