Arizona Coyotes trade for Patrik Nemeth

The Coyotes take the Swedish blueliner off the New York Rangers’ hands.

The Arizona Coyotes have made a trade with the New York Rangers to acquire left-handed defenseman Patrik Nemeth.

The trade sees the Coyotes add a second-round pick in the 2025 Draft and a conditional second in 2026 while also sending defensive prospect Ty Emberson the other way.

According to CapFriendly, the condition on the 2026 pick is that the Coyotes could opt to take the Rangers’ third-round pick in the 2024 Draft instead if they so wish – depending on how they feel that draft class is shaping up.

The deal is an interesting one, with Nemeth still having two years left on his contract at a cap hit of $2.5 million, which also holds a modified No-Trade Clause.

Per his M-NTC, Nemeth had to list eight teams he could not be traded to, which suggests that the Coyotes were not on this list.

The 30-year-old brings with him ideal size, standing at 6-foot-4, 227 lbs, and plenty of experience at the NHL level – having racked up 429 regular season appearances, with ten goals and 65 total points throughout his professional career.

Nemeth has been a reliable player in the NHL for many years but had a difficult time in the Big Apple with the Rangers.

Nemeth does use his big frame for good use, with a combined 703 blocks and 630 hits in his career, potentially giving the Coyotes a player of the Niklas Hjalmarsson/Ilya Lyubushkin mold along the blueline.

Nemeth joins Josh Brown and Troy Stecher as other experienced additions to the team’s defensive corps on the opening day of free agency, with the Coyotes needing to bulk out the unit and give themselves a chance at making further moves when next season’s trade deadline rolls around.

Losing Emberson in the deal will be a disappointment, as he looked to have a promising future in the desert after being selected in the third round of the 2018 Draft, but adding potentially two more second-rounders to the team’s current haul will alleviate this.