Rangers trade Vincent Trocheck to Utah, make flurry of moves on Day 1 of NHL free agency

Rangers general manager Chris Drury had a lot of work to do this summer as he continued retooling the Blueshirts. It felt as if he did most of it Wednesday, when he pulled off four major trades and signed two forwards on the first day of the NHL’s free agent signing period.

Headlining Wednesday’s roster renovation was the trade of center Vincent Trocheck, the big trade chip Drury held onto at the trade deadline in March. Drury sent Trocheck to the Utah Mammoth in exchange for defenseman Sean Durzi, prospect Cole Beaudoin, and a third-round draft pick in 2027.

But Drury didn’t stop there. He also traded a top-10 protected first-round pick in 2030 to Vancouver for defenseman Marcus Pettersson, shipped defenseman Will Borgen to Boston for a second-round pick and a conditional third-rounder; sent a fourth-round pick in 2028 and minor leaguer Kalle Vaisanen to Boston for goalie Joonas Korpisalo, and signed free agent forwards Oliver Bjorkstrand and Joe Veleno, and minor league defenseman Marc Del Gaizo.

All this five days after Drury had traded for sniper Pavel Dorofeyev from Vegas, and selected Latvian defenseman Alberts Smits with the No. 5 overall pick in Friday’s draft.

The 6-5 Pettersson, 30, represents an upgrade on the left side of the defense, and reunites him with coach Mike Sullivan, for whom he played parts of seven seasons in Pittsburgh. Pettersson, whose listed weight is just 174 pounds, is a defense-first defenseman who played all 82 games, and had three goals and 15 assists in 2025-26. He will slot in as the No. 2 left defenseman, behind Vladislav Gavrikov.

Durzi, 27, is a 6-1, 196-pound right shot defenseman who will effectively replace Borgen (five goals, 10 assists in 75 games in 2025-26) as the second pair right defenseman, behind Adam Fox. Durzi played 60 games for Utah this season with five goals and 22 assists. He had two assists in six playoff games, and likely will settle in as the point man on the second power-play unit. Beaudoin, 20, was a first-round pick (No. 24 overall) in 2024 who will be playing his first professional season in 2026-27. In 2025-26 he had 33 goals and 88 points in 54 games for Barrie of the OHL, and had three goals and seven points in seven games for Canada at the World Junior Championships.

Bjorkstrand, 31, is a right shot forward from Denmark who can play either wing, and who has six 20-goal seasons in his 11-year career. He signed a one-year, $4.5 million contract that does not include any trade protection, and profiles as a middle-six forward who could play on the second or third forward line.

Once Drury announced in mid-January he would retool the Rangers, Trocheck, who was a member of the gold medal-winning USA Olympic team, became one of the most coveted players in the league leading up to the March 6 deadline.

“What I appreciate about Troch is he has a 200-foot game; he plays on both sides of the puck,’’ Sullivan, the Rangers and USA coach said of Trocheck during the season. “He has a sound defensive conscience. He's a really good faceoff guy. He's an excellent penalty killer, and he's a fierce competitor.’’

But Drury didn’t get an offer he liked for the two-way center, so he held on to him.

“We’re going to make deals that we think make sense,’’ Drury said after the deadline passed. “We certainly weren’t just going to make a trade on any player just to say we made a trade.’’

Utah is believed to have been one of the teams on Trocheck’s 10-team no-trade list, but he apparently changed his mind.

Veleno, 26, signed a one-year, $1.2 million deal to be the fourth-line center and a penalty killer for the Rangers. He had two goals and five points in 61 games with Montreal this season, while winning 51.6% of his faceoffs.

With the retirement of Jonathan Quick, Korpisalo, 32, figures to be the backup goaltender, serving as No. 2 behind Igor Shesterkin. He went 14-9-6, with a 3.15 goals-against average and .894 save percentage for Boston this season. Ostensibly, he will compete with Dylan Garand for the backup role, but realistically, his $4 million salary and $3 million cap hit for the next two seasons suggests he’ll be in the NHL, and not the AHL.

Bringing him in, though, opens up the possibility the Rangers could lose the 24-year-old Garand, who would need to clear waivers if the Rangers decide to send him down to AHL Hartford. In that case, the Rangers could possibly lose him for nothing.

By Colin Stephenson

colin.stephenson@newsday.comColinSNewsday

Colin Stephenson covers the Rangers for Newsday. He has spent more than two decades covering the NHL and just about every sports team in the New York metropolitan area.