The Rangers continue to sort through their group of fringe NHLers.
Adam Edstrom was traded to Nashville in exchange for the No. 148 pick and prospect Massimo Rizzo, the team announced during the second day of the NHL draft Saturday afternoon.
The move comes one day after Brett Berard was shipped to Montreal as part of a prospect swap for William Trudeau.
According to a source, the Rangers don’t plan to extend a qualifying offer to Rizzo, who profiles more as a career AHLer.
New York Rangers center Adam Edstrom (84) celebrates his goal with the team in the second period against the New Jersey Devils at Madison Square Garden, Thursday, Oct. 2, 2025, in New York, NY. Corey Sipkin for the NY POSTWith the emergence of players like Jaroslav Chmelar and Adam Sykora last season, the Rangers had a bit of a logjam of bottom-sixers building up. Moving Berard and Edstrom gives more promising players a clearer path to an opportunity.
Edstrom, the 6-foot-7 forward the Rangers drafted 161st overall in 2019, was ravaged by injuries during his New York tenure.
After suffering two long-term lower-body injuries in the span of 10 months, Edstrom was limited to 51 games in 2024-25 and 35 games last season. Despite returning from a fractured ankle that required surgery in March, the 25-year-old was a healthy scratch in the final 11 games of the 2025-26 season.
The injuries never allowed Edstrom to gain any traction in the Rangers lineup, but the fit wasn’t quite right either.
Head coach Mike Sullivan even experimented with Edstrom at center, a position he hadn’t played at the NHL level. It was short lived and created an even larger question mark over Edstrom entering the offseason.
Team president and general manager Chris Drury was able to recoup a fifth-round pick for Edstrom, who finished his Rangers tenure with 10 goals and six assists in 97 games over parts of three seasons.
Signed through the 2026-27 season at $975,000, Edstrom is set to become a restricted free agent with arbitration rights next summer.
The Rangers subsequently traded the 131st and 148th picks to Seattle to move up to pick No. 102 and select center Spencer Bowes out of the Ontario Hockey League. As a result, the Rangers were able to pad the organization’s depth down the middle with another skater on the NCAA track.
“I love the fact that they traded up to get me,” Bowes said with a smile on a Zoom call. “I love their fans, too, like watching that NBA series. I’m pumped.”
Bowes is committed to Providence College for the 2027-28 season. He said the plan is for him to go back to the Ottawa 67’s for another season before making the jump to college hockey.
