The New York Rangers traded former Stanley Cup-winning defenseman Derrick Pouliot on Friday, less than an hour before the NHL trade deadline. In return, the Rangers acquired 24-year-old center/wing prospect Aidan Thompson from the Chicago Blackhawks.
The deadline trade was an unusual one-for-one deal of players who spent all of this season, and the previous one, at the minor-league level. Thompson so far this season has accumulated 15 points, including six goals, in 40 games for the Rockford IceHogs.
“The 5-foot-11, 180-pound forward spent three seasons with the University of Denver, recording 117 points (42 goals and 75 assists) in 120 games,” according to an announcement by the Rangers detailing Friday’s trade.
Thompson, a native of Fort Collins, Colorado, played for the Pioneers’ 2024 NCAA National Championship men’s hockey team and ranked second in the nation with 55 points in his last season at Denver. Thompson also tied for third in assists with 34. He scored the second-most goals, 21, for Denver where he was named alternate captain.
Before college, the newest Ranger served two years in the USHL, playing in 109 games for the Lincoln Stars. In the 2022 NHL Entry Draft, the Blackhawks made Thompson the 90th pick overall, taking the left-shot center with their third-round selection.
Who Did the Rangers Trade to Chicago?
New York sent another AHL player to the Blackhawks to acquire Thompson, but in this case they parted with a 32-year-old defenseman with a respectable NHL career behind him. Derrick Pouliot last played an NHL game on Feb. 26, 2024, when he took the ice for the Dallas Stars against the New York Islanders, logging 11 minutes and one second over 15 shifts.
According to a report on the trade by The Athletic, Pouliot â a native of Saskatchewan â “has played the entire season for the Hartford Wolf Pack, where heâs posted 28 points (two goals and 26 assists) with a minus-13 rating through 52 games while often quarterbacking their power play. He has 226 career games of NHL experience with seven different clubs.”
The veteran journeyman is looking for one more chance to see NHL ice time, after the Pittsburgh Penguins made him the No. 8 overall pick in the 2012 NHL Entry Draft.
Pouliot played three NHL seasons with the Penguins, debuting on Dec. 20, 2014. He was part of Pittsburgh’s 2016 Stanley Cup championship squad, though in that postseason he made his only appearances in the second-round playoff series against the Washington Capitals. He got onto the ice for more than 29 minutes across those two games, but did not record a point.
Will Either Pouliot or Thompson See NHL Action This Year?
Pouliot saw his most action on the NHL ice after the Penguins traded him to the Vancouver Canucks on Oct. 3, 2017, for a 2018 fourth-round draft pick plus defenseman Andrey Pedan.
In his first season with Vancouver, Pouliot appeared in 71 games scoring three goals with 19 assists. The following season, he played in 62 games with nine assists and three more goals, before signing with the St. Louis Blues as a free agent.
But he spent most of the 2019-20 season in the AHL, tallying seven goals and 39 points in 59 games for the San Antonio Rampage, getting into just two games for the Blues before the team non-tendered him after the season.
Both Pouliot and Thompson are expected to remain at the AHL level for the duration of the season.
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