Here are today’s news and links:

Rangers News:

• Brett Cyrgalis examines where the Rangers currently stand in the Eastern Conference playoff picture (NY Post)
• Colin Stephenson notes that even with little in the way of playoff hopes, the Blueshirts have made the final stretch of the season more interesting than last season (Newsday)
• Vincent Mercogliano highlights how even if Chris Kreider’s days in New York are numbered, the power forward is playing hard until the end (LoHud)
• Steve Paulus offers his analysis on the team’s latest acquisition, Julien Gauthier (Blue Line Station)
• Paulus also argues that in spite of their recent play, the Rangers should still sell off assets as the trade deadline approaches (Blue Line Station)
• Frank Curto sees the team’s Gauthier<—>Keane swap as a simple case of giving up a strength to improve a weakness (Elite Sports NY)
• Pasi Tuominen examines how Kaapo Kakko has performed through the first 55 games of his rookie season (The Hockey Writers)
• Sean Treppedi juxtaposes Henrik Lundqvist’s current situation with that of former New York Giants’ career .500 quarterback Eli Manning (Empire Writes Back)
• The Hartford Wolfpack traded Tom McCollum and Lewis Zerter-Gossage to the Lehigh Valley Phantoms to complete the Rangers’ acquisition of J.F. Berube (Official Team Site)/

Around the NHL:

• Frank Seravalli lists seven Stanley Cup hopefuls that are yet to make any sort of upgrade (TSN)
• Andrew Berkshire takes a look at the premier defenseman available on the trade market right now (Sportsnet)
• Although the trade deadline isn’t until Monday, aggressive general managers around the league have been active in striking deals (NBC Sports)
• Steven Ellis names seven players that could benefit from a change of scenery ahead of Monday’s deadline (The Hockey News)/