Rangers trade Ryan Spooner to Oilers for Ryan Strome
Ryan Strome, right, and Cam Talbot of the Edmonton Oilers celebrate after defeating the Rangers at Madison Square Garden on Oct. 13, 2018. Credit: Jim McIsaac
A day after the Rangers scratched forward Ryan Spooner for the second time this season, he was traded to the Edmonton Oilers on Friday for former Islanders forward Ryan Strome in a straight swap of underachieving players.
Both Spooner, 26, and Strome, 25, have had only one goal and one assist this season, with Spooner appearing in 16 games and Strome in 18. Both teams hope a change of scene will be helpful.
According to Elliotte Friedman of Hockey Night in Canada, the Rangers are keeping $900,000 per year of Spooner’s salary on their books. The Blueshirts signed Spooner to a two-year, $8-million deal as a restricted free agent this past summer. Strome is earning $3.1 million this season and next.
Spooner, who was acquired a day before the NHL trade deadline last season from the Boston Bruins as part of a package for Rick Nash, made a decent splash with the Rangers immediately after the trade and had four goals and 16 points in 20 games. But he has been unable to find his groove this season.
Strome, who is 6-1, 194, was a first-round pick (fifth overall) by the Islanders in 2011 and played parts of four seasons for them, accumulating 45 goals and 81 assists. His best season was 2016-17, when he had 17 goals and 13 assists in 69 games.
Strome, who plays center or right wing, is a righthanded shot; Spooner shoots left. Mika Zibanejad, Jesper Fast and Vinni Lettieri are the Rangers’ only other righthanded-shooting forwards.
Protecting the slot
A day after four tip-in goals by the Islanders prompted Rangers coach David Quinn to accuse his team of being “soft’’ in front of its own net, the Rangers worked on covering opposing forwards in the slot, an area Quinn said was “a safe place to be’’ for the Islanders’ forwards in Thursday night’s 7-5 victory over the Blueshirts.
Quinn wouldn’t say whether physical defenseman Brendan Smith, who sat out the last three games as a healthy scratch, will return to the lineup Saturday against the Panthers, but he made a point of saying, “There’s not going to be a long stretch where he’s out.’’
If Smith gets back in the lineup, he could bump Brady Skjei from a spot. On Friday at practice, Smith worked with Skjei’s partner, Tony DeAngelo, while Skjei rotated in with the pair of Fredrik Claesson and Kevin Shattenkirk.
Quinn said of Skjei: “Brady’s just in a little bit of a funk. And it happens over the course of a season. He’ll get out of it.’’
Blue notes
Forwards Kevin Hayes and Mats Zuccarello (both given “a maintenance day’’) did not practice Friday… Quinn said D Adam McQuaid (lower body injury) skated on his own for the first time since Oct. 25.
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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