Rangers acquire Reilly Smith in trade with Penguins

The Rangers added a veteran presence to their right-wing stack. 

Reilly Smith is New York bound after the Penguins traded the 33-year-old to the Rangers on the first day of free agency on Monday, in exchange for a conditional 2025 fifth-round pick and a second-rounder in 2027, the team announced. 

Pittsburgh will retain 25 percent of Reilly’s $5 million cap hit, which puts him on the Rangers’ books for just one season at $3.75 million. Additionally, the fifth-round pick will be the worse of the Rangers’ and the Wild’s, acquired by the Blueshirts in the Ryan Reaves deal in November 2022. 

The deal provides the Rangers with a short-term solution to fill a hole on the right side in the top nine, or even top six depending on how the remainder of the offseason goes. 

Smith, the brother of former Rangers defenseman and newly signed Stars blueliner Brendan Smith, could start the season on the top line next to Chris Kreider and Mika Zibanejad. 

Coming off a 40-point season (13 goals and 27 assists) with the Penguins, the 13-year NHL veteran brings playoff experience to the Rangers, who view him as a versatile wing and value his Stanley Cup-winning experience with the Golden Knights. 

Smith was a 50-plus-point producer in four of the Golden Knights’ first six seasons of existence, as well as once with the Bruins and once with the Panthers. After he came to Vegas in an expansion-draft deal with Florida, Smith totaled 124 goals and 286 points in 399 games, as well as 18 goals and 48 assists in 88 playoff games. 

The Ontario native also scored the Stanley Cup-clinching goal in Game 5 against the Panthers last year.