New York Rangers acquire Anton Blidh from Avalanche, Wyatt Kalynuk from Vancouver Canucks
The New York Rangers made a couple of minor deals as the trade deadline came and went.
The club acquired winger Anton Blidh from the Colorado Avalanche for center Gustav Rydahl. The Rangers also acquired defenseman Wyatt Kalynuk from the Vancouver Canucks in exchange for future considerations.
OFFICIAL: #NYR have acquired forward Anton Blidh from the Colorado Avalanche in exchange for forward Gustav Rydahl and have acquired defenseman Wyatt Kalynuk from the Vancouver Canucks in exchange for future considerations.
— New York Rangers (@NYRangers) March 3, 2023These deals have limited NHL implications, with all players involved having minimal NHL experience and the two teams actually acquiring players being two deep playoff teams that have plenty of options to replace their current group before these players. With that, it mostly impacts their AHL teams.
Blidh is the more experienced of the three, with 84 games over the course of seven seasons, including 14 this year thanks to all the injuries the Avalanche faced this season, although he was held pointless in them. He also has 36 games with the Colorado Eagle in the AHL, with six goals, six assists, and 12 points in those games. Blidh was a sixth-round pick by the Boston Bruins in 2013, where he played with them until 2022 when he went to free agency and signed with the Avalanche to a one-year, $750,000 deal.
Kalynuk has a bit of NHL experience as well, with 26 games in 2020-21 and 2021-22 with four goals and five assists for nine points. He had four goals, 13 assists, and 17 points in 46 games with the Abbotsford Canucks in the AHL this season. He was a seventh-round pick by the Philadelphia Flyers in 2017, but joined the Chicago Blackhawks after three seasons in college as a free agent. Two seasons later, he was not qualified by the Blackhawks and signed a contract with the Canucks in free agency to his current one-year, $750,000 deal.
Rydahl goes to Colorado, and he is an undrafted player who spent a majority of his career in the Swedish Hockey League until 2022, when he signed an NHL contract with the Rangers at league minimum for one season. He has yet to get any NHL action, and has seven goals, eight assists, and 15 points in 40 games in the AHL with the Hartford Wolf Pack.
