Whether it be sooner or later, it looks as though New York Rangers defenseman Zac Jones' days in Manhattan are limited.
The Rangers granted the 24-year-old permission to begin speaking with other teams around the NHL about a potential trade fit per Sportsnet NHL insider Elliotte Friedman in his "32 Thoughts" column.
"There's interest, and he's good enough to take advantage of a new opportunity. One caveat: since he's not a big guy, teams with a smallish blue line are an unlikelier destination," Friedman wrote.
Jones has played in 26 games this season, registering eight points with a plus-2 rating.
He expressed frustration with his difficulty in staying in the lineup to the media recently.
"It (expletive) sucks, it (expletive) sucks," Jones said to Larry Brooks of the New York Post. "It's frustrating when you think you're doing some things well, and it's just, you just keep getting taken out, taken out, taken out.
"I just feel like I'm rotting away a little bit."
Jones began the year as a third-pair defenseman with Braden Schneider, as he did last season, too. The Rangers have been using Will Borgen and Urho Vaakanainen over Jones, both of which were acquired in recent trades for Kaapo Kakko and Jacob Trouba, respectively.
It's not so much anything that Jones is doing wrong that's keeping him in street clothes, however.
As Friedman noted, Jones is not a big presence on the blue line. It's a primary reason why he hasn't been used much by the Rangers as they struggle to generate enough consistent physicality in the lineup.
Trouba accounted for most — if not all of it — when he was with the Rangers; now that he is in Anaheim, general manager Chris Drury is rethinking the identity of his team and it doesn't seem to include Jones.
When he came to the Rangers several years ago, he had already been drawing comparisons to Adam Fox's game as a smart puck moving skater.
"I'm not a 32-year-old guy collecting a paycheck," Jones said. "I'm a guy who wants to earn my paycheck. I need to play. I have things I need to improve in order to be a full-time player, and that's what I want to be.
"I want to be a guy who plays 82 games and is in the lineup every night."
The permission granted to Jones came soon after he made those comments last week. When Kakko had criticized his playing time last month, he was on a plane to Seattle not long after.
Read more: Rangers to Get Igor Shesterkin Back After Four-Game Absence to Upper-Body Injury
For more on the NHL, head to Newsweek Sports.
English (US) ·