Rangers land Massimo Rizzo in draft-weekend trade with Predators
New York flipped Adam Edstrom for Massimo Rizzo and No. 148, betting that a 60-game AHL tweener fits Hartford and the Rangers' depth chart better.
The Rangers turned Adam Edstrom into Massimo Rizzo and the 148th overall pick, a draft-weekend swap that looks less like housekeeping and more like a bet on fit. New York did not just add a pick; it added a player whose AHL track record suggests he can move between Hartford and the NHL without needing the kind of runway Edstrom had already claimed.
Chris Drury announced the deal for New York, and Chris MacFarland announced it for Nashville. The Rangers received Rizzo and a 2026 fifth-round pick at No. 148, while the Predators got Edstrom in return. For a club still shaping its forward pipeline, that matters because Rizzo arrives as a known quantity in the minors, not a blank slate.
Rizzo has already been through plenty of churn. Carolina drafted the Burnaby, British Columbia native in 2019, 216th overall, and he was moved from Philadelphia to Boston on March 6, 2026, then from Boston to Nashville on March 12, 2026. Last season he skated in 14 games split between Providence and Milwaukee and put up two goals and three assists for five points. Over 60 career AHL games with Providence, Milwaukee and Lehigh Valley, he has shown a steadier scoring profile, including career highs of six goals, 12 assists and 18 points in 2024-25 with the Phantoms. He also logged 29 ECHL games with Reading and finished with 22 points, another marker of a player who can produce when moved around the lineup.
His college record helps explain why teams keep looking at him. At Denver, Rizzo piled up 126 points in 107 games, served as an alternate captain and finished with a 1.18 career points-per-game average that the program says is the best among its modern 100-point scorers. He was also a two-time Hobey Baker Award nominee and a back-to-back All-American second-team selection. That is the résumé of a forward with enough touch to matter in the middle six, but enough versatility to hold down a depth role right away.
Edstrom’s profile made him movable. He had 97 career NHL games and 16 points when the trade was made, along with 43 career AHL games with Hartford before becoming an NHL depth piece. New York also executed another pick-for-pick move with Seattle on June 27, underscoring how active the Rangers were in reshaping assets across the draft weekend.
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