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Rangers stay busy acquiring Sheppard, shipping out Stempniak in separate trades
New York Rangers GM Glen Sather decided to keep churning out the moves on the eve of the trade deadline. Just a few hours earlier, Sather pulled off a deal that brought defenseman Keith Yandle to the Big Apple. He followed up with two more trades.
The first sent Rangers forward Lee Stempniak to Winnipeg in exchange for AHL forward Carl Klingberg. Jets GM Kevin Cheveldayoff has been so active during the trade deadline that he made this deal during his team's game against the LA Kings.
Klingberg, 24, has spent much of his career with the St. John's Ice Caps after being selected by the then-Atlanta Thrashers in the second round of the 2009 draft. He has 12 games of NHL experience over four seasons with exactly one goal scored during that time. His impact is made with the AHL team. In 256 regular season games played, he has 133 points. After his entry level deal expired this past off-season, he signed a 1-year contract with Winnipeg for a $650,000 cap hit.
For Stempniak, 32, he will be playing on his fourth team in two seasons. He was traded from Calgary to Pittsburgh last season at the deadline. In the off-season he signed a one-year contract with the Rangers for a cap hit of $900,000. In 53 games with New York, he recorded 9 goals, 9 assists, and averaged 12:26 TOI. He's a veteran depth forward that can bring some additional leadership to a promising, youth-filled Jets team.
This trade helped clear cap room for the Rangers by dumping some of Stempniak's salary. Klingberg will likely be assigned to Hartford. Not too earth shattering.
For this trade on the Milbury Scale, I give it... ONE MILBURY!
Shortly after the second trade, Sather netted a hat-trick acquiring center James Sheppard from the San Jose Sharks in exchange for a fourth-round draft pick in 2016. According to ESPN's Pierre LeBrun, the Sharks will retain $100,000 of Sheppard's $1.3-million cap-hit/salary.
Sheppard, 26, spent the better part of three seasons with the Sharks. At the time of the trade, he was 12th on the team in scoring with 16 points in 57 games, and fourth on the team in face-offs at 50% with 267 wins and 267 losses.
With a contract that is up at the end of the season, he's a rental for the Rangers. He probably take over Stempniak's place in the lineup for New York's stretch run. And for all that I give this deal... TWO MILBURYS! You never know how draft picks are going to turn out.
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Jen Neale is a staff writer for Puck Daddy on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email her at puckdaddyblog@yahoo.com or follow her on Twitter!
