{"id":424739,"date":"2026-01-23T09:40:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-23T09:40:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/424739\/"},"modified":"2026-01-23T09:40:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-23T09:40:10","slug":"rangers-face-san-jose-team-that-is-likely-to-be-trade-partner-soon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/424739\/","title":{"rendered":"Rangers face San Jose team that is likely to be trade partner soon"},"content":{"rendered":"

LOS ANGELES \u2014 On Friday, the Rangers will face a Sharks team that is finally making a racket after years of purgatory.<\/p>\n

The matchup feels like a sudden inversion. At the end of just last season, the Sharks were in the exact same position the Blueshirts are in now: dead last in their conference. While the Rangers have been on a downward trajectory, San Jose is beginning to reap the benefits of their rebuilding process.<\/p>\n

The Rangers, on the other hand, just entered a retooling phase<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A young and promising Sharks core coming into its own has prompted an organizational shift.<\/p>\n

At some point, the Rangers could very well do some business with their upcoming opponents.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re a team that hasn\u2019t had a lot of expectations, so there\u2019s not a lot of pressure,\u201d head coach Mike Sullivan said of the Sharks after practice Thursday afternoon in El Segundo, Calif. \u201cThey\u2019re an emerging group. I think they have a young Sidney Crosby in [Macklin] Celebrini. That\u2019s who he reminds me of, with the way he plays the game and his passion to play the game a certain way. <\/p>\n

\u201cBut he not only has elite skill, but he\u2019s got an elite work ethic. And that\u2019s most specifically what reminds me of the way Sid approached the game. When you have an emerging superstar like that, I think they\u2019re going to make noise because of that. It doesn\u2019t just end with him. They\u2019ve got a lot of young talent.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"BradenBraden Schneider\u2019s name has come up recently as one of interest for the Sharks, whose GM, Mike Grier, is close with Rangers GM Chris Drury from their days playing together at Boston University and with the Sabres. Wendell Cruz-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

The Sharks entered Friday\u2019s game on the cusp of the second wild-card spot in the Western Conference. Tied with the Kraken in points (53) and points percentage (.541), San Jose is in prime position to add to its roster and make a push to end the team\u2019s six-year playoff drought.<\/p>\n

They\u2019re a fun team to watch. Between Celebrini, Will Smith and William Eklund, the youth movement in Northern California has picked up. Former Rangers veterans Barclay Goodrow and Ryan Reaves are also playing a role in establishing culture.<\/p>\n

Sharks GM Mike Grier already added Kiefer Sherwood from the Canucks last week in exchange for Cole Clayton and two second-round picks (2026, 2027).<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

With plenty of cap space to spare, Grier has the flexibility to make a splash if he wants. There is belief the Sharks have interest in acquiring defenseman Braden Schneider, who is set to become a restricted free agent this upcoming summer.<\/p>\n

Schneider is one of the Rangers\u2019 most enticing trade chips given his ability to deepen any defense corps with a reasonable $2.2 million cap hit. <\/p>\n

Despite the 24-year-old being due for a pay bump, the team he\u2019s traded to would be in a preferable position for negotiations.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\tWhat\u2019s happening on and off the Garden court\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSign up for Inside the Knicks by Stefan Bondy, a weekly exclusive on Sports+.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\tThank you\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

The relationship between Rangers president\/general manager Chris Drury and Grier is well-documented. <\/p>\n

Not only did they win an NCAA championship together at Boston University in 1995, but he two were NHL teammates when they crossed paths again in Buffalo in 2003.<\/p>\n

And when Drury was promoted to head honcho in New York in May 2021, the first front-office hire he made was naming Grier as his hockey operations adviser.<\/p>\n

It was widely reported that Drury gave Grier a strong recommendation for the Sharks job as well.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LOS ANGELES \u2014 On Friday, the Rangers will face a Sharks team that is finally making a racket…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":424740,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[178216,11559,4823,385,835,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-424739","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-chris-drury","9":"tag-mike-sullivan-nhl","10":"tag-new-york-rangers","11":"tag-nhl","12":"tag-san-jose-sharks","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/424739","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=424739"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/424739\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/424740"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=424739"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=424739"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=424739"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}