The New York Rangers (23-11-4, third in the Metro Division) are the hottest team in the NHL right now.
They've won 12 - yep, you read that right, 12, count them - of their last 13 games, leading to all kinds of wonderful articles about how amazingly, monumentally, ludicrously fast they are and how they're on pace to buck the recent trend of Stanley Cup finalist hangovers.
With the team on such a hot streak and performing in such outstandingly able fashion, it's surprising that there is talk of their interest in a trade - of course, for a front office that just last season traded their captain, Ryan Callahan, for aging superstar Martin St. Louis ahead of the trade deadline, nothing can really be considered "surprising."
The Rangers, according to TSN's Elliotte Friedman, appearing on Calgary's Sportsnet 960 Friday, as transcribed by NicholsOnHockey.com, are interested in acquiring defenseman Andrej Sekera from the Carolina Hurricanes.
"I know - I believe they're one of the teams that really likes Sekera from Carolina. I think they've kind of circled around him," Friedman said. "Whenever the Hurricanes make their decision on what they're going to do there, I think they're one of the teams that's interested."
That decision facing the Canes that Friedman is referencing is whether or not to sign Sekera, who is a pending UFA, to a new deal or trade him for value.
Sekera enjoyed something of a breakout last season, his first in Carolina, finishing with 11 goals and 33 assists for the Canes. Highly abnormal totals for a player who'd never before topped four goals in a season.
Earlier in the segment, Friedman noted that while teams like the Rangers are showing interest in Sekera, the Hurricanes' first hope is still to re-sign him.
"I doubled back and I checked with teams I heard were interested and the word I get is that Carolina is still going to try to sign him."
But should those efforts not prove fruitful, the Rangers, who are facing the prospect of potentially losing a handful of their own guys - Mats Zuccarello, Marc Staal and St. Louis - and based off their recent play think they can make another Cup run, would look at Sekera as a big-time rental piece to help put them over the top.
"So I think they know this is a year - and Marty St. Louis is an unrestricted free agent after this year - so you kind of know this is going to be a year where you're going to have to go for it."
