Adam Proteau's pre-season Stanley Cup finalist picks – the Rangers and Stars – are starting to see some cracks. What problems can they solve through the trade market?

In the modern NHL, no team escapes adversity. 

For one reason or another – injuries, underwhelming performances, or both – all of the league’s franchises have to go through tough times to be prepared for the Stanley Cup playoffs. And the teams that do figure out how to roll with the punches and peak at the right time of year are the ones that enjoy the type of deep post-season run as we saw from the Florida Panthers and Vegas Golden Knights last season.

This is something to bear in mind if you’re a fan of the New York Rangers or Dallas Stars, this writer's two teams predicted to be in the Stanley Cup final before the season. The Stars and Blueshirts started out the current season looking very good, but in recent weeks, the shine is off the bumper for both of them. They’re currently dealing with a malaise of sorts. And the main reason why the Rangers and Stars are struggling is the same in both cases.

Since Jan. 5, the Rangers have gone 3-5-2, including a four-game winless streak. In four of those seven recent losses, the Blueshirts have allowed four goals or more – something that wasn’t happening early in the season when goalies Igor Shesterkin and Jonathan Quick were performing well.

This is not to suggest the Rangers don't have issues on offense as well. In particular, their showing on the right wing has not been great, with Alexis Lafrienriere, Kaapo Kakko and Blake Wheeler all having varying degrees of success, none of them overwhelmingly positive. 

As per PuckPedia, Rangers GM Chris Drury has about $4.4 million in salary cap space, but that’s only because forward Filip Chytil is on long-term injured reserve. If he returns – it appears he's at least back in New York during his recovery from an upper-body injury –  the Rangers will be essentially capped out.

The Stars, meanwhile, have gone 6-4-2 in January – not terrible, but not overly comfortable for a Stanley Cup contender.

Defense has also been a problem for them, as they’ve allowed at least four goals in five of their last six defeats. The Stars haven’t looked as bad as the Rangers do at present, but you have to remember, Dallas’ expectations have been sky-high leading up to the beginning of the season, so a mediocre run like they’ve had of late is not a huge condolence for their fan base. 

Similarly to the Rangers, Dallas has next-to-no cap space, with just $950,000 to play with at the moment. 

There’s been speculation the Stars could make a play for a veteran defenseman like Ottawa’s Jakob Chychrun to shore up the back end, but that’s a long shot at best.

That said, the period leading up to the league’s March 8 trade deadline could see the Stars and Rangers make depth moves in anticipation of a playoff run. The Rangers have all three of their next first-round picks and one second-rounder to use in a trade. The Stars have all three first-rounders and two second-rounders as the bait with a cap-clearing player to bring in a veteran with a championship pedigree. 

Stars GM Jim Nill and Rangers counterpart Chris Drury have demonstrated they’re more than willing to take big swings on the trade market. Considering the win-now mode both teams are currently in, there’s still a possibility a major trade could happen for one or both teams. Is it likely? No. But is it possible? Absolutely.

We’ve said this earlier this season, but we had high hopes for Dallas and the Rangers this year. In stretches, they’ve shown why people believe in them, but they’ve now got to try and get back to their early-season dominant form if they’re going to do any playoff damage. The competitive window for teams is different, but there’s a similar pressure on both the Stars and Blueshirts at present, and only internal improvement, along with what’s likely to be secondary talent added via trade, is going to keep their fans and management happy.