Tri-State Hockey Podcast · The Nation Network

Episode 29: Trade Deadline Primer

·1 hr 11 min·4 clips

Arthur Staple says Adam Fox has a full no-move after next season and could control a trade request.

Johnny Lazarus opens by saying there is no time to waste and brings Arthur Staple and Mike Rupp right into the Rangers chatter. He gets corrected on the episode number and moves on without making a thing of it. The conversation starts with Vinny Trocheck’s comments from practice and whether people are reading too much into them. Arthur and Mike mostly treat it like standard hockey noise. The panel then folds in the Adam Fox comments from earlier in the week and uses that as a doorway into the larger roster argument. The deadline hangs over everything, and the discussion keeps drifting toward what the team should actually be trying to learn before Friday. A voicemail triggers one of the longer stretches of debate. That opens up a conversation about whether the team should push younger players into more important spots, even if it costs them a game here or there. The panel talks through power-play usage and whether the staff should spread the ice time around instead of leaning on the same names. One idea on the table is giving each power-play unit a minute, with Adam Fox on one group and Mika Zibanejad on another. From there the talk turns to what the Rangers might be able to smoke out by giving more players real situations. Mike pushes back on the idea that this coaching staff is there to experiment for its own sake. The point, to him, is that the coaches are still paid to win games. That leads into a sharper argument about personnel choices and who is actually getting used. The panel questions why Vinnie Iorio would be getting preference over Scott Morrow. Adam Edstrom comes up next as another example of a decision that feels performance-based rather than purely developmental. They note that he has been a good contributor when healthy and that he is still young enough to matter. Ty Cartier enters the discussion too, with Johnny framing him as a middle-six type in the ongoing Rangers inventory. The whole stretch has a loose, slightly exasperated feel, like a group of hockey people trying to sort real team-building logic from week-to-week frustration. Even when the conversation wanders, it keeps coming back to the same practical question: who should be trusted, and in what role, before Friday. The episode wraps by telling listeners to stay tuned for Friday’s plan, which will be announced on social media. After that, the show signs off with the Novig sponsorship read and a standard thank-you to listeners.

As heard by us

A blunt Rangers deadline discussion that keeps its focus on roster fit and the choices the team cannot dodge.

This Rangers deadline episode stays locked on the same uncomfortable questions: who should be in the lineup, who deserves more power play time, and whether the club should chase wins now or use the stretch to figure out what it actually has.

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Why you'd press play

You want a Rangers deadline check-in that jumps straight into Trocheck, Fox, and the roster questions.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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