The failed Carolina Hurricanes – New York Rangers trade may have been around the draft, but there has been recent Alexander Nikishin trade talk involving someone
Daily Faceoff: David Pagnotta notes that the failed Alexander Nikishin trade to the New York Rangers happened around the 2026 NHL draft, and not recently. There were talks with another team recently that might have been close, and Hurricanes would then look to flip some of those assets to the Jets for Connor Hellebuyck.
Jonny Lazerus: “This Nikishin rumor, the Rangers obviously involved. Don’t know what the return would have been, but the Rangers didn’t want to pay Nikishin that $9 million. When, when is this situation going to get figured out?”
Colby Cohen: “Maybe Trocheck, maybe that was, was it before Trocheck? What, what do you know about the situation?”
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Pagnotta: “Yeah, the Rangers thing that was around the draft. I don’t think it was recent.
Now, I, I was told that there was another situation recently, not Rangers related, that didn’t happen as well. That the Hurricanes were in talks with another club about Nikishin, and they were going to utilize some of those assets to package up with other current assets, I guess, and try to make something work with Winnipeg for Connor Hellebuyck.
But the Rangers report that’s out there, I believe that was around the draft. I don’t know if it was on draft day or leading up to it or right after, but it was in and around that. I had heard that even running around on the floor, we’d heard that, ‘oh something’s going on with Carolina and the Rangers again,’ and then it just kind of fizzled out.
So it’s no secret Nikishin would like a change of scenery. I think it’s more so geared towards, you know, ice time, responsibility, having an opportunity elsewhere to exploit his personal talents in a different way, outside of Carolina’s system.
But they have to figure that out. I mean, the guys looking nine, $10 million a season, might be even more. Again, the Rangers thing was around draft time. Something else went down, and I haven’t been able to pinpoint it. Where conversations got heated to the point where some people thought maybe something was going on.
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And then Carolina would have then taken whatever they got, or at least the bulk of what they got from Nikishin, package it up, and tried to make something work with Winnipeg, and that’s still something that could possibly happen here.”
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