Rangers' Zac Jones Searching For New Team

The New York Rangers have had a major fall-off this season and there have been moves made. Two of these moves involved getting back defensemen, so it has forced Zac Jones out of the lineup. The last game he played was on Dec. 23.

In parts of five seasons in the NHL, Jones has never played more than 31 games in a season, and that career high came in 2023-24. He is at 26 games right now and has one goal and eight points and is averaging 16:42 of ice time per game, the most in his career.

When the Rangers traded defenseman Jacob Trouba to the Anaheim Ducks, Urho Vaakanainen was part of the return. When the team dealt Kaapo Kakko to the Seattle Kraken, the player the Rangers got in return was a defenseman, Will Borgen, instead of a forward. This led to Jones being pushed out of the lineup.

In terms of offensive impact this season from Rangers' defensemen, Jones is in the same conversation as K'Andre Miller, Ryan Lindgren, and Braden Schneider, all of whom have 7-10 points on the season in at least eight more games played.

It is definitely time for a fresh start on a new team and Elliotte Friedman reported that the Rangers have given Jones permission to speak to other teams. He also revealed that there is interest out there for him, so we should expect to see a move before the trade deadline this season. Jones has potential and is only 24 years old. I expect a team with injury problems right now or a team not in a playoff spot to take a stab at trading for him, and it will probably come fairly cheap.

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