Knicks, Nets, Rangers, Islanders And Devils Spent February Making Notable Moves

February holds the distinction of being the shortest month every year and in the context of sports, it often gets described as a place holder, the dog days of winter when people dream of warmer weather and baseball getting underway,

While football now occupies nearly half the month, once a Super Bowl concludes, hockey and basketball are left to capture the attention of those seeking live games.

For those following the five New York area teams in the winter sports perhaps what unfolded behind the scenes with remaking or tweaking the rosters of each of the teams. Since Jan. 30, the following players are newcomers to the New York sports scene: Spencer Dinwiddie, Mikal Bridges, Cam Johnson, Dorian Finney-Smith, Josh Hart, Vladimir Tarasenko, Bo Horvat, Timo Meier, Niko Mikkola, Tyler Motte and Patrick Kane.

Each of those players was brought in for differing reasons ranging from roster needs or in the extreme case the dissatisfaction of some players, a category that can be discussed extensively as it pertains to Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant and their desire to exit the Brooklyn Nets three and a half years after signing on in free agency.

The wild trade season actually began on Jan. 30 when the Islanders obtained Horvat from the Vancouver Canucks right after he was named to the All-Star team. Horvat was in the unique situation of representing the Pacific Division despite being on an Eastern Conference team.

Not wanting to duplicate what often happens when a rental leaves in the summer with little to show for it, the Islanders moved quickly. They signed him to an eight-year, $68 million extension on Feb. 5.

The day Horvat inked his contract extension also coincided with the rumors of Irving percolating. Two days earlier word surfaced Irving was seeking a trade likely due to the Nets unwillingness to sign him to a lengthy contract extension due to his various issues with things other than basketball.

By the same day Horvat received his new contract, the details of Irving’s departure emerged, and it wound up with him going to Dallas for Finney-Smith and Dinwiddie, who coincidentally was among the sources of credit for Irving signing in Brooklyn.

On Feb. 6, it was official and it occurred shortly after coach Jacque Vaughn gave his pregame press conference and humorously described Irving’s calf as “still sore” even though anyone paying attention knew what was about to go down.

Next was figuring out the preference of Durant, who during the summer sought a trade and then rescinded his request. By about 1 am on Feb. 9 everyone found out when the trade deadline kicked off with word of Durant going to the Phoenix Suns (his preferred destination last summer and this time) for several first-round picks and Mikal Bridges and Cam Johnson, who coincidentally played in Brooklyn for the Suns two days earlier and made their debuts with the Nets on Feb. 10 against Philadelphia, which landed James Harden from Brooklyn for Ben Simmons at last year’s deadline.

The Durant news blowing up the internet occurred after word trickled out about Hart joining the Knicks from the Portland Trail Blazers for Cam Reddish. The news was so exciting that Jalen Brunson erupted while reading the tweets about the trade at Villanova where he was getting his jersey for contributing to national title wins over North Carolina in 2016 and Michigan two years later.

Then during a wild NBA trade deadline, the Rangers made the first of their moves adding Tarasenko from the St. Louis Blues as a 31-game rental for the rest of the regular season. A day later Tarasenko scored on one his first shifts with the Rangers after the whirlwind of finding out he was leaving the team he contributed to winning a Stanley Cup in 2019.

It was the first sign the Rangers were going all in as opposed to making moves along the margin like they did last season with the additions of Frank Vatrano and Andrew Copp. It also took them off the trail of acquiring Kane or at least it seemed so.

Instead as notable trades throughout the NHL started happening Kane became linked to the Rangers with the speculation running rampant on Saturday when he flew back to Chicago from San Jose. The Rangers just needed to figure a way to make it work in salary cap terms and they showed some way of figuring it out with the bizarre circumstances on Sunday.

Coming off their worst week of the season, the Rangers engaged in some salary cap gymnastics, dressing 18 but playing 16 and eventually 15. They needed to do so to avoid risking injury to two players they intended to send down to make room for Kane’s salary cap hit and it worked in a 5-2 win.

The unique scenario of dressing two players but not playing them occurred as the Devils made their move to augment what is a surprising season that featured an early 13-game winning streak. Their move was acquiring Meier from San Jose while he plays the final season of a four-year contract that ends with him hitting restricted free agency

By Tuesday night as the Nets were taking a 10-point halftime lead and eventually folding during the second half in their sixth game with the revamped lineup, the trade for Kane was finally announced ending what was a unique month of trades.

Kane will make his debut Thursday at home against Ottawa and the Rangers are hoping it starts the hot streak the Knicks are on since adding Hart.

The results of the wild set of transactions will be unknown until the spring, though expectations are now lowered for the Nets and unknown for the Islanders who are still missing the cut of the wild-card race. The Rangers or the Devils will likely find out by the end of April since the NHL’s playoff format has them likely to play each other in the opening round while the Knicks may nudge their way into the top-four of the Eastern Conference.

Until then, observers of all five teams will sit back and watch how the moves unfold after a most interesting month of transactions.