Captain out as Rangers complete trade flurry

The Rangers last week dealt Nick Holden to the Bruins and sent Michael Grabner, their leading scorer, to the New Jersey Devils, leaving them to move forward as a last-place team stripped of some of its most popular and reliable names with 19 games to go.

The Rangers signaled that big changes were coming two weeks ago in a letter from President Glen Sather and general manager Jeff Gorton, telling fans that the team “may lose some familiar faces, guys we all care about and respect” in order to add young, skillful players.

In Monday’s deal, the Rangers acquired 25-year-old Russian forward Vladislav Namestnikov and two prospects: Brett Howden and Libor Hajek. The Rangers also got Tampa Bay’s first-round pick in June’s draft and a conditional second-round draft pick in 2019, which would become a first-round selection if the Lightning, who lead the Atlantic Division, win the Stanley Cup this year or in 2019.

“It hit on a lot of things we wanted to accomplish as far as acquiring high picks and getting young players we’ve really liked for a while,” Gorton said Monday. “We’re getting some younger players we can really build around.”

The Rangers, who have lost seven straight, now have three first-round picks (one of which was acquired in the Nash deal), two second-rounders and two third-rounders for the June draft in Dallas.

They are 3-13-1 in their last 17 games and are almost certain to miss the playoffs for the first time since 2010. They are focusing instead on building their roster for the future.

Namestnikov, a first-round pick by the Lightning in 2011, is the only player currently on an NHL roster that the Rangers acquired through their deals over the past two weeks. A 5-foot-11-inch forward, Namestnikov has 20 goals and 24 assists this season and will be a restricted free agent this summer.

The 19-year-old Howden is a 6-foot-3, 200-pound center who was Tampa Bay’s first-round pick two years ago and is in his third season with the Moose Jaw Warriors of the Western Hockey League. Hajek, 20, is a 6-foot-2 defenseman from the Czech Republic picked in the second round in 2016.

The 28-year-old McDonagh, who became the Rangers’ captain in October 2014 after Ryan Callahan was traded to the Lightning for Martin St. Louis, has not played since a 6-1 home loss to Boston on Feb. 7 because of an unspecified upper-body injury. Following that defeat, a clearly frustrated McDonagh said it was “one of the worst games of my career and one of the worst games I’ve ever been a part of in my Rangers career.”

McDonagh had two goals and 24 assists before his injury this season. A first-round selection by the Montreal Canadiens in 2007, he joined the Rangers via trade in June 2009.

“It’s a very difficult thing to do,” Gorton said of trading McDonagh. “He’s a player we view as a really special Ranger, the captain of our team.”

The trade reunites McDonagh with his former defense partner Dan Girardi, as well as former Ranger Anton Stralman. McDonagh and Girardi were a crucial blueline duo for the Rangers when they reached the Stanley Cup Finals in 2014, where they lost to the Los Angeles Kings in five games.

McDonagh’s contract expires after next season.

The 24-year-old Miller was in his sixth season with the Rangers, who selected him 15th overall in the 2011 draft. He had 13 goals and 27 assists in 63 games but seemed out of sync at times this season with Rangers coach Alain Vigneault shifting him between center and wing.

The Rangers have been lacking true centers since trading Derek Stepan to Arizona last June. That has surely been a key reason for their struggles this season. They are last in the Metropolitan Division before starting a three-game Western Canada road trip in Vancouver on Wednesday.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.