The trade that would rock the world, and make a lot of sense.

To many the suggestion of trading a super star player like Henrik Lundqvist may sound like absolute blasphemy but it may not be that crazy. First let's look at the current situation the New York Rangers find themselves in, they've now had two deep playoff runs in back to back to years but haven't been able to win it all. As a result there's a general feeling that unless some drastic changes are made to the team's player personnel the Rangers won't be able to win it all as currently constituted. The Rangers now need to make some very important signings in order to keep some of their core players in the line up for next season. At the top of that list are Derek Stepan and Carl Hagelin both of whom are restricted free agents this summer, both of whom could receive offer sheets from other teams that would leave the cap strapped Rangers at risk of losing one of those players. You could even add Chris Kreider to that list who despite having one year left on his deal may be worth extending prior to his restricted free agency. One way for the Rangers to save on cap space would be to make the aforementioned trade of Henrik Lundqvist. While it may sound crazy let's not forget that the Rangers have an incredible goaltender waiting in the wings in the form of Cam Talbot. While Talbot  played far fewer games than Lundqvist did this season there's no denying who was the better goalie when getting the start, and that guy was Talbot. Henrik Lundqvist played in 46 regular season games for the Rangers this season and recorded a 2.25 goals against average and a .922 save percentage over the course of those games, those numbers are both slightly weaker than that of the opposition. Cam Talbot played only 36 games but over that stretch recorded a 2.21 goals against average and a .928 save percentage and while that by no means indicates he's the better goaltender, it does suggest he's a capable replacement at the very least. The Rangers would save over $7 million dollars in cap space if they were to move Lundqvist, that much space could allow you to sign or acquire a star forward or a star defenseman with ease and could easily help propel the Rangers over the top. That's without mentioning the gargantuan return the Rangers could expect in return if they were to move a superstar goalie like Lundqvist. A trade of this magnitude could also help the Rangers in the long run, if they were to look for prospects and high level draft picks in exchange for the services of Lundqvist and that may be the best direction to take at this point. Martin St. Louis is all but done at 39 years of age, and it's hard to imagine him being a major contributor to a future cup run, and the nearly $8 million dollar man in Rick Nash has once again proven that he's not a playoff performer and with him getting older and only two years left on his deal it may be time to look towards the future. Do we think this trade is going to happen? Absolutely not, teams tend to hold on to players like Lundqvist until they retire or until they can't get any value in exchange for them, but that doesn't mean the Rangers shouldn't seriously consider the move and it certainly doesn't mean they couldn't reap tremendous benefits from doing so.