Rangers trade Cody McLeod to Nashville for a draft pick
The Rangers' Cody McLeod battles for the puck during the first period against the Islanders' Stephen Gionta at Madison Square Garden on Nov. 21, 2018. Credit: Jim McIsaac
Hours before they are to take on the Boston Bruins in the third game of their five-game homestand, the Rangers announced Wednesday that they have traded rugged forward Cody McLeod to the Nashville Predators for a seventh-round pick in the 2020 NHL draft. The Rangers called up Vinni Lettieri from their Hartford farm team to fill the roster spot.
McLeod, 34, returns to Nashville little more than a year after the Rangers claimed the enforcer off waivers from the Predators in January 2018. He played a total of 56 games for the Rangers, scoring one goal, collecting two assists, with 99 penalty minutes. This season, he had a goal and 60 penalty minutes in 31 games. He had played in 16 straight games before being scratched for the Rangers’ 4-3 overtime loss to the L.A. Kings on Monday.
Lettieri, who made the Rangers out of training camp, played 16 games, mostly on the fourth line, and did not score a goal or an assist for the Rangers. At Hartford, he played in 29 games and scored 12 goals with 15 assists for 27 points. Today is his 24th birthday.
Colin Stephenson covers the Rangers for Newsday. He has spent more than two decades covering the NHL and just about every sports team in the New York metropolitan area.
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