Chris Kreider Opens Up About Trade Speculation And Tension In Rangers' Locker Room

For the first time in a while, Chris Kreider's name is on the trade block.

New York Rangers general manager Chris Drury sent a memo to the NHL that he is willing to trade Kreider on Sunday.

For a player that has spent all 13 seasons of his career in New York. This sort of news would come as a shock with a lot of emotion involved.

When asked about these trade rumors for the first time Kreider did not shy away from the topic.

“Shouldn’t trivialize someone’s feelings, but how you feel doesn’t affect your ability to do something that you’ve done for the entirety of your life – unless you let it,” Kreider said via Mollie Walker of The New York Post.

According to The Athletic’s Arthur Staple, Drury met with Kreider on Tuesday as the conversation was honest and productive.

Kreider has recorded nine goals through 19 games, but the 33-year-old is not playing up to the standard that we have been accustomed to seeing.

The adversity the Rangers are currently going through could either be a positive or negative thing depending on how the team handles the saturation and Kreider knows that.

“I think it’s pretty obvious there’s frustration, angst, tension,” Kreider said Via The New York Post. “Good. We’re 20 games in. Let’s go through this s–t now and figure out who we are. We had the best regular season in the history of an Original Six franchise last year, won a Presidents’ Trophy and didn’t go as far as we would’ve liked. We’re getting exposed right now. Our warts are out there and teams are picking on the things we don’t do well and we’ve gotten away from the things we do do well.

“We don’t necessarily know what this is right now, right? This could just be part of the story. We look back at this and say, ‘This made us better.’”

The Rangers are currently on a three-game losing streak and have not been playing their best hockey in the slightest over the past couple of weeks.

Just over a month into the season, the Rangers are already dealing with internal locker room issues and trade rumors that are clouding over them.

It’s not an amazing situation to be in, but it’s better all of this is happening now since the veteran squad will have months to get back on track in their pursuit of a Stanley Cup.