Late night trade involving the News York Rangers divisional rivals takes many fans by surprise

The Flyers acquired a 2025 second round pick and a 2028 seventh round pick from the Flames. Many rumors have swirled around the Flyers over the past number of months as many felt the team was ready to make a move with Morgan frost as part of the package.

A move of this magnitude certainly will be felt throughout the division even though the Flyers have not been in contention for a playoff spot. Removing Farabee and Frost appears to have dropped the Flyers depth as Kuzmenko has had trouble with hot button coach in Rick Tocchet.

The Rangers meanwhile are continuing to evaluate their situation and their roster as the team will be facing a major decision in the next couple of weeks whether to be sellers, buyers or both.

After stabilizing their season early on in January, the Rangers have lost two straight and currently have 52 points an are four points behind the Boston Bruins for the second wild card spot.

There is a logjam of teams in front of the Rangers including the Montreal Canadiens, New York Islanders, and Detroit Red Wings, and the Columbus Blue Jackets who were all within a few points of those wild cards and it remains to be seen on which team will remain in which team will fade over time.

The Rangers have a few games remaining until the two week layoff due to the Four Nations faceoff tournament. They will face 15 games in March as the team and the rest of the NHL goes down the stretch.

General manager Chris Drury will likely know just prior to the deadline what he would like to do and if the team falters between now and that moment it's safe to say they will be sellers and they will restructure the team and be ready for next year.

But many Rangers fans hope the team will get their act together and get back to their winning ways as they are just outside of the playoff picture which was unheard of by the end of December.