Carolina Hurricanes

Photo credit: James Guillory-Imagn Images

Viktor Neuchev is heading to the Carolina Hurricanes from the Buffalo Sabres, and New York Rangers fans can’t ignore a division rival adding pieces during a retool.

Carolina announced the deal Saturday, sending defenseman Gavin Bayreuther to Buffalo in the swap. It’s not a blockbuster, but Metro teams win with depth, not headlines.

Neuchev is 22, drafted in 2022, third round, by Buffalo, and he has quietly built a solid pro foundation in Rochester. This season with the Rochester Americans, he’s at 6G-9A-15P in 32 games, the kind of line that hints at a future bottom-six scorer if the details keep coming.

Buffalo, meanwhile, gets a 31-year-old left-shot defenseman in Bayreuther, who went undrafted and has lived the pro grind for years.

New York Rangers need to start getting active on their retool

It feels like everybody else is calmly stacking options while you’re stuck reading the word «retool» over and over.

For Carolina, this is classic, add a young forward asset and let your development machine take the wheel. For Buffalo, it looks like a quick depth answer, with reports saying Bayreuther is headed to the AHL’s Rochester Americans right away.

That part matters, because teams don’t survive a long season without call-ups who can play clean minutes. The Rangers have learned that lesson the hard way whenever the blue line gets banged up and the puck starts living in their zone.

So even a «minor» trade lands loud in the Metro, because it’s one more example of a rival staying sharp at the margins. Neuchev isn’t stepping into Carolina’s top-six tomorrow, but he’s a cheap, controllable swing on future offense.

The major takeaway for the Rangers is uncomfortable, retooling can’t just be about subtracting, it has to be about replacing the boring minutes too.

That’s the next milestone, Drury has to find his own version of moves like this before the gap in the division feels permanent.

Previously on NY Hockey Insider

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Trade completed: New York Rangers divisional rivals making moves that’s hard for Chris Drury to ignore

Do you think the New York Rangers first trade of their retool will begin after the Olympic break?