For 30 years, the New York Rangers had the metro area all to themselves in the NHL. After literally sharing Madison Square Garden for several seasons with the New York Americans, that team moved to Brooklyn and then eventually folded in 1942. It wasn’t until three decades later that the Rangers would have another close local rival.
The birth of the Rangers rivalry with the New York Islanders began in 1972, when the Long Island upstarts entered the NHL. With The Garden less than 30 miles from Nassau Coliseum, things became heated quickly between the Rangers and Islanders, neither looking to give an inch.
Because both teams play in the Eastern Conference, they’ve never played in the Stanley Cup Final, but they have met eight times in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, with the Islanders holding a 5-3 lead, including a stunning upset in 1975. The last time these clubs met in the postseason was 1994, when the Rangers swept the Islanders in the first round en-route to winning their first Stanley Cup championship in 54 years.
Ultimately, it was just a payback victory after the Islanders eliminated the Blueshirts four consecutive years during the the early 1980s, including the final three seasons of their Stanley Cup Dynasty.
Overall, thanks to a 138-126-19-10 record, the Rangers maintain a slight advantage in their regular-season meetings.
Based on the proximity and animosity between the two clubs, it would surprise no one that the Rangers and Islanders have only completed three trades with one another in more than 50 years of competition. And only one of those has taken place since 1972.
Guess neither side wants to take a chance and be burned by their next-door neighbor.
Glen Sather is the most recent Rangers general manager to make a trade with the Islanders. Credit: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports
Though there have been many players who logged time with both the Rangers and Islanders, including Pat LaFontaine, Darius Kasparaitis, John Vanbiesbrouck, Doug Weight, Ryan Strome, Mathieu Schneider and Greg Gilbert (the only player to have won a Stanley Cup championship with each team), only a precious few can say they were actually traded between the two local rivals.
Let’s take a look.
May 25, 2010: Rangers acquire Jyri Niemi for a sixth-round pick (Tanner Lane)
The most recent trade between the Rangers and Islanders took place 14 years ago and is the only one between the rivals that didn’t take place during the Islanders inaugural season in 1972.
For the record, the bold general managers to take part in the most recent Rangers-Islanders trade were Glen Sather and Garth Snow.
Jyri Niemi was an Islanders third-round pick (72nd overall) in the 2008 NHL Draft. After playing junior hockey in his native Finland, the defenseman played three seasons with the Saskatoon Blades from 2007 to 2010 before playing three seasons in the Rangers organization. He joined the Connecticut Whale in the AHL but was more productive in two seasons in the ECHL during his tenure in the Rangers organization. Ultimately he returned to Finland to play in Liiga, and retired in 2019.
Tanner Lane actually was drafted by the Atlanta Thrashers in the sixth round (160th overall) in 2010 after the Islanders traded the pick away. The center played three seasons in the USHL before playing in the NCAA with the University of Nebraska-Omaha. He tallied 25 points in college but did not play professional hockey. In 2019, Lane became an assistant coach with Detroit Lakes High School, a role he had as recently as 2023-24.
Nov. 14, 1972: Islanders acquire Ron Stewart for cash
Ron Stewart played 21 years in the NHL, winning three Stanley Cup titles with the Toronto Maple Leafs in 1962, 1963, and 1964. Eventually, he left Toronto and played in Boston and St. Louis before a 1967 trade (with Ron Attwell for Red Berenson and Barclay Plager) sent him to the Rangers from the Blues. Stewart played parts of four seasons from 1967 to 1971 with the Blueshirts before they shipped the veteran forward to the Vancouver Canucks with Dave Balon and Wayne Connelly for Gary Doak and Jim Wiste.
Three months later, Stewart was headed back to New York in a trade for cash and Mike McMahon, who would be on loan to the Canucks for the remainder of the 1971-72 season. Stewart began the 1972-73 season with the Rangers, playing 11 games before they traded him to the Islanders for cash. He would go on to play the final 22 games of his career with the Islanders before retiring at the age of 40.
Stewart played 1,353 games in the NHL, though only 24 with the Rangers and 22 with the Islanders. He had three assists in his Rangers tenure and four points (two goals, two assists) with the Islanders.
June 8, 1972: Islanders acquire 1973 seventh-round pick (Denis Andersen) and eighth-round pick (Denis Desgagnes) in exchange for Rangers roster protection in the Expansion Draft
Denis Andersen never made it to the NHL but had productive stints in the WCHL, CHL, and NAHL-Sr. leagues from 1972 to 1976. His best season came in 1975-76 with the Erie Blades (NAHL-Sr.), when he scored 53 points in 66 games.
Denis Desgagnes was a two-time QMJHL second-team All-Star, scoring 131 points in 1971-72 and 123 points in 1972-73. He advanced to the CHL, where his production dipped to just 27 points in two seasons before a stint in the IHL, where he had 24 points in 22 games over two seasons with the Muskegon Mohawks and Milwaukee Admirals.
In the 1972 Expansion Draft, the Islanders selected defenseman Bryan Lefley from the Rangers, and the Atlanta Flames selected left winger Norm Gratton. The Blueshirts’ protected list included Eddie Giacomin, Gilles Villemure, Ab DeMarco, Jim Dorey, Bill Fairbairn, Rod Gilbert, Vic Hadfield, Ted Irvine, Bruce MacGregor, Jim Neilson, Brad Park, Jean Ratelle, Dale Rolfe, Bobby Rousseau, Rod Seiling, Pete Stemkowski and Walt Tkaczuk.
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