Chris Drury Defends Himself After Jacob Trouba Claims Rangers Used A Threat

Jacob Trouba opened up about his true feelings towards the New York Rangers after getting traded to the Anaheim Ducks.

The Trouba trade saga with the Rangers got messy and public as the veteran defenseman believes the team could have handled things better.

“I'm happy with moving forward, but I'm not overly thrilled with how it went down,” Trouba said. “In my opinion, things could've been handled better. I'm not blaming anybody or anything, just kind of how it happened I thought was kind of unfortunate.”

Trouba also claimed that Rangers general manager Chris Drury threatened to put him on waivers if he did not accept a trade.

“It was a threat,” Trouba said.

“Yesterday morning it was accept this trade or we're scratching you. I said okay. Then it was accept this trade or you're going on waivers. I said okay. It's a rite of passage to get fired from MSG.”

While Drury did not respond to Trouba's comments about a threat being made, he did defend himself on the criticism that he does not treat his players with the proper amount of respect.

Drury feels like he’s done nothing wrong.

“It's my job, and 31 other GMs’ jobs, to try and do everything we can to help our team,” Drury said via Vince Z. Mercogliano of USA Today. There's things at our disposal in the CBA. I'm not trying to mess with players. I have a ton of respect for Barclay and certainly, as I've said already, for Jacob. I'm just trying to do the best I can to move the team forward and make changes that I think are necessary.”

We will have to see if Drury’s ruthless tactics have an impact on the overall reputation of the Rangers and players’ desire to come to New York.