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We were treated to the most notable trade of the NHL season so far when the Rangers shipped Jacob Trouba off to the Ducks last week following a flurry of rumors concerning his fate. That includes a fairly baffling report that suggested he could be shipped off in a deal involving Brady Tkachuk, which has sparked some bickering after the owner of the Senators implied the team may been engaging in some tampering behind the scenes.
The New York Rangers got off to a solid start this season before things took a turn for the worse thanks to a five-game skid that began to unfold in the second half of November. It didn’t seem like there was any dire need to press the panic button, but the franchise reportedly informed other teams it was willing to move some notable names in an effort to firm up its position moving forward.
That somewhat surprisingly included Jacob Trouba, the captain and defenseman who was scratched from the lineup for “roster management purposes” ahead of Friday’s showdown between the Rangers and the Penguins before he was shipped off to the Ducks in a trade where New York received Urho Vaakanainen and a fourth-round pick in the 2025 NHL Draft.
There were a number of NHL insiders keeping tabs on the deal as it developed who sent out updates concerning the talks that were supposedly unfolding behind the scenes. That included Larry Brooks, the longtime Rangers beat reporter for The New York Post (and mortal enemy of John Tortorella) who turned plenty of heads by asserting the team was pursuing a potential trade involving Senators star Brady Tkachuck.
Brooks is a fairly divisive figure among hockey fans thanks to his reputation as an antagonist who thrives on the attention he gets from the drama he’s routinely able to generate with his questions, reports, and columns.
His scoops concerning potential transactions can usually be trusted (thanks in no small part to the direct lines he has with high-ranking members of the Rangers organization), but plenty of people were caught off guard by what seemed to be a patently absurd proposal given Tkachuck’s immense popularity in Ottawa and the lopsided nature of a trade where the Rangers would have to fork over additional assets they either don’t have or couldn’t afford to give up.
On Monday, Kevin Weekes asserted the Rangers didn’t have any external or internal discussions about a trade involving Tkachuck, and while Brooks has attempted to spin his initial report by saying Tkachuck was simply the kind of player the team would like to acquire, it’s pretty hard to believe there wasn’t another onus for that specific name being floated.
During an interview with The Athletic, Senators owner Michael Andlauer indirectly accused the franchise of “soft tampering” while implying Brooks’ report stemmed from planted information designed to drum up Trouba’s value among potential suitors, saying:
“I can tell you 100 percent there’s never actually been an ounce of discussion about Brady Tkachuk being anything other than an Ottawa Senator…
If indeed [Brooks is] being fed false information, or people are giving this information from another NHL organization, I don’t know—we just had a big memo about tampering from the NHL. I might consider that soft tampering,”
The Rangers didn’t waste any time clapping back while implicitly denying those claims, as a spokesperson issued a statement that reads, “This is an irresponsible accusation and we defer to the commissioner’s office.”
I’ll be a bit surprised if the NHL feels the urge to launch an official investigation into the matter, but this could be an interesting situation to keep an eye on.