The Blueshirts on Wednesday acquired veteran forward Alex Wennberg from the Kraken, sending their own 2024 second-round pick and a conditional fourth-round 2025 pick to Seattle, the team announced.

Wennberg, 29, recorded nine goals and 16 assists in 60 games this season, his third with the Kraken.

The Rangers have until Friday’s 3 p.m. deadline to make any additional trades for their Stanley Cup push.

Originally a 2013 first-round pick by Columbus, the two-way Wennberg joins a Rangers team that lost Blake Wheeler and center Filip Chytil to significant injuries.

Now in his 10th NHL season, Wennberg boasts 90 goals and 240 assists over 693 games with the Blue Jackets, Florida Panthers and Kraken. Wennberg’s 25 points this season were seventh-most on the Kraken and would rank eighth on the Rangers. His four game-winning goals and 65 blocked shots both led Seattle.

Wennberg’s best season came in 2016-17, when he recorded a career-high 59 points, including 46 assists, for Columbus. He scored a career-high 17 goals in 2020-21 during his lone season with Florida.

The Stockholm-born Wennberg has appeared in 42 playoff games, adding a little extra postseason experience to a Rangers team that leads the Metropolitan Division at 40-18-4.

The Rangers tied a franchise record with 10 consecutive wins between Jan. 27 and Feb. 24 but have since dropped three of four games, including Monday at home against the Atlantic-leading Panthers.

John Tavares, Mitch Marner and William Nylander had goals in regulation for Toronto, which has won nine of its last 10 games. Ilya Samsonov stopped 32 shots.

Vincent Trocheck scored twice, and Alexis Lafreniere had a goal and two assists as the Rangers lost for just the second time in 13 games (11-1-1). Artemi Panarin also had two assists and Igor Shesterkin made 31 saves.

After Mika Zibanejad and Marner traded goals in the shootout, Domi put Toronto ahead in the fourth round. Trocheck then hit the post to seal the Maple Leafs’ win.

Ilya Lyubushkin, who took a big hit from hulking New York rookie Matt Rempe late in the second period and didn’t return, suited up for the Maple Leafs following Thursday’s three-team trade that brought the bruising defenseman back to Toronto from Anaheim. The 29-year-old Russian was also with the club for 31 games and a playoff round in 2022.

Toronto forward Calle Jarnkrok returned to the lineup after breaking his knuckle in practice on Jan. 26, while defenseman Timothy Liljegren was also back from a two-game absence with an undisclosed injury.

Tavares snapped a 2-2 tie at 7:17 of the third period when Jarnkrok’s shot hit Rangers defenseman Jacob Trouba before ricocheting off the Toronto captain and in for his 18th goal of the season.

The 6-foot-7 Rempe — a combatant in three memorable fights through his first six NHL games — and Toronto’s Ryan Reaves dropped the gloves in a spirited tilt later in the period.

Samsonov made a huge stop on Panarin with less that five minutes remaining in regulation and made an even bigger glove save on Adam Fox moments later.

However, Trocheck it with his second of the night and 22nd overall with 1:07 left when he knocked in a rebound.

New York opened the scoring with 8:27 left in the first when Lafreniere wired a shot off the post and back bar for his 18th.

After plenty of pre-game talk about Rempe and Reaves, the pair were in close quarters later in the period. Reaves, 37, tried to get the 21-year-old forward’s attention in the neutral zone at the end of their shifts, but Rempe skated off to boos from the Scotiabank Arena crowd.

Samsonov stopped Jimmy Vesey on a breakaway later in the period and Trochek ripped a shot off the post on a power play before Maple Leafs defenseman Morgan Rielly swept the loose puck to safety.

Toronto tied it 1-1 at 3:54 of the second when Marner slid his 24th under Shesterkin, but Trochek finished off a nice passing play 1:09 later to put the Rangers back ahead.

Nylander tied it again at 8:54 when he floated a shot through traffic that hit former Toronto defenseman Erik Gustafsson’s stick and fooled Shesterkin for his 33rd. That gave the Swede his third 10-game point streak of the season to set a franchise record.

UP NEXT

Rangers: Host Florida on Monday night.

Maple Leafs: Host Boston on Monday night.

Chris Kreider had a goal and an assist and Adam Fox also scored as the Rangers won their sixth-straight at home game and 11th in the last 12 games. New York, first in the Eastern Conference, improved to 12-2-1 in the last 15 games — three nights after having a 10-game winning streak snapped at Columbus on Sunday.

Kreider and Panarin scored empty-netters 41 seconds apart in the final minute. Kreider got his 30th – the third-straight season the veteran forward has achieved that milestone – and Panarin increased his career-best total to 35.

New York has 83 points, tied with Vancouver atop the NHL standings through the Canucks have played one more game.

“It’s a great job by the guys,” Rangers coach Peter Laviolette said. “We still have work to do. You get to the last quarter before the playoffs and you have to play some hockey that’s good hockey. I think our guys have done that.”

Panarin’s first goal of the night was the 250th of his career, which included two seasons with the Blue Jackets before he signed a seven-year free-agent contract with the Rangers in July 2019.

Cole Sillinger scored for the Blue Jackets and Elvis Merzlikins finished with 26 saves. Columbus, last in the East, has lost five of its last eight. The Blue Jackets had a number of opportunities to tie the contest in the waning minutes but couldn’t beat Shesterkin.

“We played a good game. The scoring chances were pretty much even,” Columbus coach Pascal Vincent said. ”The guys battled to the end.”

After a scoreless first period in which the Rangers outshot the Blue Jackets 17-9, Panarin opened the scoring at 7:17 of the second as he fired the puck past Merzlikins after Vincent Trocheck won a faceoff in the left circle.

Fox made it 2-0 on the power play with 5:41 left in the second, firing the puck past Merzlikins for his 10th. Fox has two goals and eight points in his last seven games and is the first Rangers defenseman since Brian Leetch (four times from 2000-04) with three-straight 10-goal seasons.

Sillinger spoiled Shesterkin’s shutout bid with his ninth goal at 3:24 of the third period.

“We had a lot of opportunities to tie the game,” Sillinger said. ”That’s a good team over there.”

Kreider scored into empty net to make it 3-1 with 53 seconds remaining before Panarin completed the scoring with 12 seconds to go. Panarin leads the Rangers with 82 points and has points in 48 of New York’s 60 games this season.

The Rangers finished February with a 10-1-0 record, outscoring opponents 40-22.

Shesterkin won his seventh straight game to improve to 26-12-1 this season.

“Good saves from him as usual,” Panarin said through a translator. “He’s doing good and we’re all proud of him.”

The 28-year-old Russian goaltender has allowed two or fewer goals in 20 of his 26 wins. He hasn’t lost since New York’s previous defeat at home, 5-2 on Jan. 26 against the Vegas Golden Knights.

“We played strong defensively,” Shesterkin said. “We played our game.”

The Rangers are 21-7-0 at Madison Square Garden this season and their 40 victories through 60 games equals the 1972-73 squad for fewest games to reach the 40-win mark in franchise history.

Columbus finished the season series 2-1-1 against the Rangers as their captain Boone Jenner captain played his 700th career game.

Rangers rookie forward Matt Rempe had a relatively uneventful sixth NHL game after having three fights in his first five contests as well as scoring the winning goal at Philadelphia last Saturday. The 6-foot-7 forward did not engage in a rematch bout with Columbus forward Mathieu Olivier. The two exchanged blows during last Sunday’s contest from which the 21-year-old Rempe sustained a black left eye.

Rangers forward Will Cuylle and Dmitri Voronkov of Columbus dropped the gloves for a brief skirmish with 4 1/2 minutes remaining.

UP NEXT

Blue Jackets: Host Carolina on Thursday night.

Rangers: At Toronto on Saturday night.

PHILADELPHIA — Alexis Lafrenière scored, Matt Rempe tallied his first career goal and got the Rangers going with another first-period fight and New York beat the Philadelphia Flyers 2-1 on Saturday to tie a franchise record with its 10th straight victory.

Igor Shesterkin stopped 39 shots for the Rangers, who previously won 10 in a row during the 1972-73 and 1939-40 seasons. They can set a club mark for consecutive victories on Sunday at Columbus. The Metropolitan Division-leading Rangers have not lost since Jan. 26.

“It was good,” Rangers coach Peter Laviolette said. “It had a little bit of everything.”

Tyson Foerster scored for Philadelphia, which lost for just the third time in its last eight games. The Flyers entered in third place in the Metropolitan, 13 points behind New York. Samuel Ersson finished with 22 saves.

“We came out hard, we finished hard, needed a bounce here or there,” Philadelphia’s Scott Laughton said. “Take a lot of positives out of it.”

Rempe, a 6-7 rookie sixth-round pick playing in his fourth career game, scored the game-winner when Barclay Goodrow’s shot deflected off his right skate and past Ersson with 13:29 to play.

“He did exactly what he’s supposed to do, which is go to the front of the net and stand in front of the goaltender,” Laviolette said.

Just three minutes in, Philadelphia’s Nicolas Deslauriers and Rempe dropped the gloves in a heavyweight duel.

Both players landed heavy punches, with Deslauriers getting cut on the forehead by one of Rempe’s hard right hands. The fight ended with Deslauriers tackling Rempe to the ice.

“That’s a good, old-fashioned hockey fight,” Philadelphia coach John Tortorella said.

Laviolette added:,“That was a good one, for sure.”

The players jawed in the pregame warmups and it carried over to the game.

“He asked me in warmups,” Rempe said. “He’s a real tough customer and said, ‘Let’s go.’ It was a great fight. We were throwing bombs. It got the juices flowing, and it was unreal.”

It has been quite a week for Rempe, who fought Islanders tough guy Matt Martin during his first shift in his NHL debut on Sunday in a Stadium Series game, and was ejected for a hit to the head of New Jersey’s Nathan Bastian in New York’s 5-1 victory over the Devils on Thursday.

Rempe entered with 22 penalty minutes in just 9:47 of ice time in three career games. The 33-year-old veteran Deslauriers is no stranger to the penalty box, having served 729 minutes in 635 games entering Saturday.

The scrap seemed to ignite both teams for the afternoon start and started quite a day for Rempe.

“He placed a heck of a game,” Laviolette said. “Had a great fight. Had big hits. Put the puck behind the defense. He’s been great since he’s been here. You can tell the players in the locker room love having him here. He loves to hit and be physical.”

Lafrenière gave the Rangers a 1-0 lead with 8:04 left in the second when his wrist shot got through Ersson during 4-on-4 play. It was his 17th of the season and third in two games.

The goal capped a wild sequence that began when Philadelphia’s Garnet Hathaway was whistled for a double-minor high-sticking penalty. Philadelphia, which entered leading the NHL with 13 short-handed goals and the league’s second-best penalty-kill unit, nearly got on the board, but Scott Laughton’s wrist shot that beat Shesterkin went off the crossbar.

Lafrenière almost scored on the power play two minutes after Laughton’s miss, but Ersson made the save of the game, denying the backhand try with a stellar left pad save. Philadelphia then nearly had another great short-handed chance, but Artemi Panarin held Cam Atkinson, resulting in a Rangers penalty and the 4-on-4 situation.

Philadelphia tied it 2:36 into the third when Foerster finished in front after a nifty pass from behind the net from Laughton.

Philadelphia leading scorer Travis Konecny did not play due to an upper-body injury. He has 27 goals and 54 points.

UP NEXT

Rangers: At Columbus on Sunday.

Flyers: At Pittsburgh on Sunday.

Tying their longest winning streak in eight seasons, thrashing the rival New Jersey Devils, getting two goals from Alexis Lafreniere and another outstanding performance from goaltender Igor Shesterkin wasn’t the difference for the New York Rangers.

All they wanted to talk about was their penalty kill after a 5-1 win over the Devils on Thursday extended their winning streak to nine games.

“I think we really never get them get set and I think just in general, especially after the first five-minute kill, we had confidence in our our kill and the way we were pressuring, the way we were taking time and space away, with all the kills,” Rangers center Mika Zibanejad said. “That was great.”

The initial kill set the tone for the game and Zibanejad scored on a power play minutes after that kill, and the Rangers never looked back.

“Our PK has kind of slipped the last couple games and we’ve talked about that and wanted to do a good job tonight,” Rangers captain Jacob Trouba said. “We answered and kind of put more details into it, a little more attention on how we want to kill penalties. And yeah, I think if we get into special teams games, I think the PK knows if we if we can do a good job, our power play is going to get a couple.”

Chris Kreider and Vincent Trocheck also scored for New York and Artemi Panarin added three assists. Shesterkin made five of his 39 saves on the major and picked up his first assist of the season as the Rangers moved within a win of tying their longest winning streak in franchise history.

The Rangers won 10 straight twice, in 1972-73 and 1939-40, a year New York won the third of its four Stanley Cup titles.

Jack Hughes broke up Shesterkin’s bid for a second shutout this season with 2:07 to play. Nico Daws made 13 saves for New Jersey, which lost its second straight and for the third time in four games.

“We got to score on so many opportunities in a power play,” Devils captain Nico Hischier said. “We weren’t sharp enough in the first power play; It was better but just couldn’t find the back of the net and it is what it is. We’ll work on it, flush it right now and move on.”

This one was embarrassing at home as Rangers fans made it feel like the game was across the river at Madison Square Garden.

“We just got to regroup,” Hughes said. “We got to digest tonight and then we got to wrap our heads around changing our attitude and really believing in ourselves and not just talking, like in saying that, but actually doing that.”

Zibanejad’s 19th of the season came 5 seconds after Curtis Lazar was called for slashing Shesterkin.

Lafreniere doubled the lead with 2:04 left in the first period with a shot in close after New Jersey defenseman Luke Hughes turned the puck over in front of his net with the teams playing 4 on 4.

Kreider scored on a counterattack in the second period that was set up by Shesterkin making a pass from his crease to Panarin at the Devils’ blue line. Lafreniere got his second on a breakaway set up by Trocheck, who tallied late in the third on Panarin’s final assist.

UP NEXT

Rangers: At Philadelphia on Saturday.

Devils: Host Montreal on Saturday.

Igor Shesterkin made 41 saves and the New York Rangers beat the Dallas Stars 3-1 for their eighth straight win on Tuesday.

Adam Fox, Kaapo Kakko and Vincent Trocheck scored for the Rangers in the matchup of division leaders.

Miro Heiskanen scored for Dallas, which lost for the second time in two days. The Stars lost to the Boston Bruins 4-3 on Monday in a shootout.

The Rangers are 9-1-1 in their last 11 contests. They were coming off a dramatic 6-5 overtime win against the Islanders in an outdoor game on Sunday at MetLife Stadium.

Shesterkin improved to 23-12-1 and has allowed two or fewer goals in 17 of his wins. He made an acrobatic glove save on Wyatt Johnson at 17:28 of the second, stopped Jamie Benn with a sliding pad stop at 13:57 of the third, then smothered several chances in the crease at 16:42 of the third.

New York has won four of their last five games against Dallas.

Fox opened the scoring at 7:46 of the first, one-timing a pass from Artemi Panarin past Stars netminder Scott Wedgewood, who made 23 saves. Defenseman Ryan Lindgren, who needed stitches under his left eye during Sunday’s game against the Islanders, also assisted on Fox’s ninth goal.

Fox has points in nine of his last 12 games. Despite missing 10 games with injury, he is seventh among NHL defensemen with 46 points. Panarin leads the Rangers with 75 points, including 32 goals, and has points in 45 of New York’s 56 games.

Kakko made it 2-0 at 8:23 of the second, finishing off a passing play with defensemen K’Andre Miller and Erik Gustafsson for his seventh goal.

Heiskanen put the Stars on the board 47 seconds later with his seventh goal on the power play with assists to Benn and Joe Pavelski. The 39-year-old Pavelski is in his 18th NHL season. He is third on the Stars with 47 points, including 19 goals.

Trocheck added an empty net goal at 18:19 of the third to seal the win.

The last time the Rangers had a winning streak of eight or more games was during the 2015-16 season.

UP NEXT

Rangers: Visit New Jersey Devils on Thursday night.

Stars: Visit Ottawa Senators on Thursday night.

Dressed in blue NYPD and red FDNY sweaters, the Rangers rode up to the stadium on fire trucks behind old-timey police cars.

The players then walked into the stadium alongside members of the NYPD and FDNY hockey teams who were dressed in their service uniforms.

“I’m not sure whose idea it was, but I thought it came together great,” Rangers forward Barclay Goodrow said Sunday of the entrance. “It was great meeting those guys. Obviously, we all know what they do for our community and it was great to share that moment with them.”

An honor to share this moment with you, @NYPDnews and @FDNY. pic.twitter.com/B1FJVehADj

— New York Rangers (@NYRangers) February 18, 2024

The Islanders, too, showed up to MetLife in police cars and fire trucks from different Long Island departments. Those included stations in East Meadow, Commack and Greenlawn.

Islanders players did not don special sweaters to walk into the stadium in East Rutherford, N.J., and instead wore suits.

“I want to say thank you to the policemen and the fire department for supporting us in this event,” Islanders coach Patrick Roy said before Sunday’s game. “I think the players are very thrilled about this.”

The Rangers won, 6-5, in overtime, coming all the way back in a game they trailed 4-1 in the second period.

The win marked a season-high seventh in a row for the Rangers, who sit atop the Metropolitan Division at 36-16-3. The Islanders, meanwhile, lost their third in a row and fell to 22-18-14, good for fifth in the division.

The Rangers improved to 5-0 all-time in outdoor games, with one of the previous matchups coming in 2014 against the Islanders at Yankee Stadium. That 2-1 Rangers win marked the Islanders’ lone outdoor regular season game before Sunday’s. Neither team had played previously at MetLife Stadium.

Sunday’s game was the second of this weekend’s Stadium Series. The Devils beat the Philadelphia Flyers, 6-3, on Saturday at MetLife.

EAST RUTHERFORD — Things seemed to be very relaxed as the Philadelphia Flyers, New York Rangers and New Jersey Devils took turns testing the ice on the recently installed rink at MetLife Stadium in preparation for two big games in the NHL’s Stadium Series this weekend.

Instead of loosening up for the workouts, each of the teams skated onto the ice and gathered for team photos. The practices were a little different.

The Flyers, who had arrived after playing a game in Toronto on Thursday night, seemed to be stretching their legs and getting used to the ice a day before facing the Devils on Saturday night.

The Rangers and Devils, who played at home on Thursday, ran some full-speed drills although the Devils were on the ice about 20 minutes less than their Metropolitan Division rivals, who will play the Islanders on Sunday. The Islanders practiced on the surface on Thursday.

After each practice, many players got to skate with the families and children on the ice, something that rarely happens.

“You just never know where these games go,” Flyers coach John Tortorella said. “There’s a lot of things going around the players. It’s my job just to just get the team ready to play after they’re done with their families, just to get them ready to play. A very important game for us.”

The Rangers have opened an eight-point lead in the division, while the Flyers are in third place with 65 points. The Devils and Islanders are two and three points out of the last playoff spot, respectively.

As expected, the Rangers were the loosest team after the workouts.

Defenseman Jacob Trouba was asked about the organization being 4-0 in outdoor games and new coach Peter Laviolette sporting an 0-3-1 mark in the series.

“We need a new coach,” Trouba quipped. As he was leaving the news conference, Trouba asked everyone not to tell Laviolette, who was up next on the podium.

Fellow Rangers defenseman Adam Fox grew up on nearby Long Island and he is thrilled to be playing in the game which will be played in an 80,000-seat stadium that is co-owned by the Jets and Giants of the NFL. The crowds for the hockey games will be about 70,000, the league said

“I didn’t go to too many, football games,” Fox said. “I grew up a Jets fan. We came to the the home opener for the Giants, though, this year. Didn’t go all that well. Hopefully we have a little better result than that.”

The Giants lost their home opener 40-0 to the Dallas Cowboys and missed the playoffs, a year after making the postseason for the first time since 2016.

The Flyers have been one of the surprise teams of the NHL season and they are using the Jets’ locker room.

Forward Cam Atkinson, a 34-year-old Connecticut native, will be playing in his first outdoor NHL game. He did play in one at Fenway Park for Boston College.

Looking around the locker room after the workout, Atkinson asked reporters: “Where’s Aaron Rodgers’ locker?” He wasn’t near it.

The Devils had the last practice of the evening and they and family members were finishing up at 7:30 p.m.

“I thought it was really good and I think they feel it’s going to be better tomorrow,” Tortorella said of the ice.

Blake Wheeler‘s regular season is over after injuring his right leg falling to the ice, and it might take the New York Rangers going on a lengthy playoff run to open the door for a possible return this spring.

Wheeler was placed on injured reserve Friday and is out for at least the rest of the NHL regular season, according to a person with knowledge of the situation.

The person spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the team had not provided an update on Wheeler’s status.

The league’s official rosters have Wheeler listed as being on injured reserve. If on regular IR, he would be out a minimum of a week, and LTIR a minimum of 10 games and 24 days.

His absence will extend past that time after going down in pain and his right leg bending at an unnatural angle 11 minutes into New York’s game against Montreal on Thursday night. He was unable to put weight on that leg and needed help getting off the ice.

It’s unlikely that the he will be able to return in the playoffs, which begin April 22, but the Rangers are not ruling out that possibility depending on Wheeler’s recovery and how far they advance. The last possible day for the Stanley Cup Final is June 24.

Wheeler, 37, has 21 points in 54 games in his first season with the team after being bought out of his previous contract last summer by Winnipeg.

“He’s a veteran player who came here for a reason,” coach Peter Laviolette said after his team’s 7-4 win over the Canadiens. “To see something like that happen, that’s tough.”

The Rangers have won six in a row and are in first place in the Metropolitan Division. They next play outdoors at MetLife Stadium on Sunday against the rival New York Islanders in the second of back-to-back Stadium Series games at the home of the NFL’s Jets and Giants.

Chris Kreider scored a hat trick, Adam Fox had four assists and Jonathan Quick made 30 saves as the New York Rangers downed the Montreal Canadiens 7-4 on Thursday to match a season high with their sixth straight victory.

Mika Zibanejad added a goal and two assists for the Rangers, who also got goals from Will Cuylle, Vincent Trocheck and Kaapo Kakko. Artemi Panarin added three assists.

The Rangers, who equaled their season best for goals, scored four times in 4:10 during the second period after Montreal took a 1-0 lead in the first.

Cole Caufield had two goals twice for Montreal, which has lost three of four. Jake Evans and Juraj Slafkovsky also scored for the Canadiens.

The 38-year-old Quick became the oldest goaltender in Rangers history with a four-game winning streak. He is 13-4-2 overall this season, and the victory moved him within one of tying Dominik Hasek for 15th place in NHL history (389). Quick is three wins from tying Ryan Miller for most among American-born goaltenders at 391.

Evans opened the scoring with his fourth goal of the season, beating Quick at 14:29 of the first.

Kreider tied it at 11:09 of the second. Shortly after he was denied on a breakway by Canadiens goaltender Sam Montembeault, Kreider rifled the puck into the Montreal net. Zibanejad and Jacob Trouba assisted.

Cuylle put the home team ahead 2-1 with his 10th goal at 12:27. Fox and Ryan Lindgren assisted.

Zibanejad then extended the lead at 14:43 with a short-handed goal. Fox and Panarin assisted as Zibanejad fired his 17th goal of the season past Montembault before Kreider made it 4-1 on the power play at 15:19 with his second goal of the night.

Slafkovksy narrowed the deficit to 4-2 with his 12th goal at 16:30 of the second.

Trocheck added his 16th at 4:23 of the third to restore the three-goal lead before Caufield scored on the power play at 6:53 to make it 5-3.

Kreider completed his sixth career hat trick with his 27th goal at 7:59, with assists to Zibanejad and Jimmy Vesey. The 32-year-old forward has 292 career goals, third on the Rangers list behind Rod Gilbert (406) and Jean Ratelle (336).

Kakko increased the lead to 7-3 with his sixth at 9:56 before Caufield scored his second of the game and 19th of the season at 11:27.

Rangers forward Blake Wheeler injured his right leg midway through the first period and had to be helped off the ice. New York later said Wheeler was ruled out for the rest of the game with a lower-body injury.

The 37-year-old right wing was knocked down along the boards by Montreal defenseman Jayden Struble behind the Canadiens net at the 11-minute mark. Wheeler fell backward and his right leg bent at an unnatural angle.

He couldn’t put any weight on the leg when he tried to get up and was assisted from the ice by teammates. A stretcher was waiting just inside the runway.

UP NEXT

Rangers: Face the rival New York Islanders for the first time this season in an outdoor game Sunday afternoon in New Jersey.

Canadiens: Host the Washington Capitals on Saturday.