Hockey insider says that the Rangers traded the wrong player!

It might be easy to say this after a deal is all said and done, but ESPN's Ben Alredge is certain one thing: the New York Rangers did not trade the right netminder back in 2015.   

Henrik Lundqvist suffered an injury at the end of the 2014-15 season and Cam Talbot took over and impressed fans and management. But once playoffs began, he was not the starting netminder and 'The King' returned to post a .928 save percentage and 2.11 goals-against average while bringing his team to Game 7 of the conference finals. 

The offseason began for the Rangers, who needed to figure out what to do with Talbot, was entering the final year of his contract, set to become an unrestricted free agent the following summer.

They traded Talbot to the Edmonton Oilers, along with a seventh-round pick, in return for a second-round pick, a third-round pick and a seventh-round pick. It made sense at the time, but now Alredge suggests that the Rangers should have parted with Lundqvist. 

"Well, the Rangers might have actually cost themselves a chance to win a Cup with that decision," he writes. "So now, the Rangers have nothing to show for sticking with Lundqvist and the win-now mentality, but still must maneuver around his massive contract, anchored to the floor with an $8.5 million average annual cap hit through the conclusion of the 2020-21 NHL season -- at which point King Henrik will be 39 years old and quite possibly in some form of equal time-share or full-on secondary role."

Talbot had a tremendous season with the Oilers last year, who came in much closer than the Rangers to win a Stanley Cup.