NHL Trade Grades: Rangers Acquire Carson Soucy From Canucks

We hope the third-round pick that the Rangers acquired from Vegas in the Reilly Smith trade earlier today didn't unpack its bags.

Rangers GM Chris Drury just bounced it towards a familiar trade partner in Vancouver. In return, the Rangers receive a massive defenseman who is having a rough season but has earned some benefit of the doubt.

The Canucks, like the Rangers, believe they need to take a wrecking ball to the team's roster to open up cap space and bring new elements. Soucy joins J.T. Miller in New York as a Vancouver outcast.

Why did Vancouver feel a need to get rid of Soucy, and why should Rangers fans maintain some belief in Soucy despite that urgency? Let's analyze and grade the deal for both teams.

New York Rangers

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Soucy is 6'5" and the data profile for him this season is absolutely atrocious. That combination of evidence often implies that a hockey team stuck in the past took the bait on a bad player.

It's not so simple in this case. Consider that Soucy was once a paragon of the analytics movement; the type of defenseman who hid in the shadows as a major needle-mover. It's no coincidence that the Seattle Kraken, one of the most data-driven organizations in hockey, scooped him up from Minnesota in the 2021 Expansion Draft. Just last season, the numbers suggested that Soucy was one of the better offensive defensemen in the NHL.

We can look at a chart for this season and say, "red means bad" and end the analysis there. Alternatively, we can ask why a player who typically grades out well looks different this season.

To preface, the Canucks have been a mess all season and it hasn't exactly been a conducive environment for any player to show his best self. But the circumstances for Soucy in particular have been miserable.

Both Quinn Hughes and Filip Hronek have missed significant time with injuries. Those absences meant that Soucy was thrust into a role beyond his means. He matched up against top players in a high proportion of defensive zone starts. You ask most defensemen like Soucy around the league to play the minutes of a cornerstone defenseman and it's not going to go well.

He also did not have the help around him that he needed. The two defensemen with whom Soucy played the most this season are Noah Juulsen (295 minutes) and Tyler Myers (259).

Juulsen is an AHL call-up type. You trust him to fill in for three or four games every season and that's it. He has been atrocious this season in a regular NHL role. Of note, he's an offensive black hole who also cannot move the puck from the back end.

Myers is better than Juulsen but the archetype is similar. He turns over the puck a lot and, at best, throws it off the glass and into the neutral zone for regroups.

Remember again that Quinn Hughes and Filip Hronek, two top-notch puck transporters, were out of the lineup. Those responsibilities went to players ill-suited for them, Soucy included. Soucy is rangy and has good depth perception and timing. He's one of the best defensemen in the league at denying zone entries and preventing transition rushes. Simply put, he eats space. What he does not do well is move the puck from the defensive zone. You pair him with a worse player who also cannot do that and it's a recipe for spending too much time in the defensive zone.

What happens when he plays with a player who better complements his skillset? In Seattle, he was paired with players who, if they weren't offensive drivers, could at least adequately start breakouts and move his team up the ice. One of those defensive partners was current Ranger Will Borgen.

Soucy's bad season may hint at the start of a rapid decline. He is 30 years old and it wouldn't be unprecedented. Alternatively, maybe he's a good defenseman who was having one bad season in unfair circumstances.

The Rangers will have Soucy at a $3.25 million cap through next season. There is risk involved. He's at a low in his career. Puck movement from defense is already a team weakness and Soucy won't help there. Adam Fox desperately needs a true No. 2 defenseman on the left side for balance. Soucy's addition means the walls are closing in on how much financial freedom the organization has to fit one.

It's also very possible the Rangers just bought low on Soucy. For much of his career, he has been a No. 4 defenseman or better. The Rangers are arguably the worst defensive team in the NHL and they added someone who not only has a long history of snuffing out offense but is a specialist at preventing rush chances, which have plagued the team all year.

If the idea is that Soucy can take on a top role in New York or that he will be paired with someone who can't make a pass then this could go poorly. If they can add some better distribution around him and let him stick to what he does well, then the third-round pick could be well worth it for a second-pairing shutdown defenseman.

Grade: B

Vancouver Canucks

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We covered the many reasons that Soucy did not work out as hoped in Vancouver. Injuries and roster makeup meant that he was asked to play a role he was not built for.

His defensive partners did not provide the right balance for his needs. The Canucks already rocked the fabric of the organization by trading Miller and it looks like there may be more seismic shifts coming. If they're even considering gutting the core, then it makes sense to trim the periphery.

Perhaps too many teams were worried about Soucy's down year but the market for available defensemen is bleak and, in theory, the extra year of his contract should give him more value. The Devils coughed up a second-round pick and decent prospect to rent a similar player in Brian Dumoulin.

The 2025 third-round pick belongs to San Jose, so it will hang on the fringes of the second round. The Canucks also clear the $3.25M off the books and they'll welcome all the financial freedom they can create as they look to change the team's identity.

Grade: B-