By Peter Baugh, Josh Yohe and Corey Pronman

The New York Rangers are sending the No. 12 pick in Friday’s first round of the NHL Draft to the Pittsburgh Penguins to complete the J.T. Miller trade, according to a league source. The Rangers will now keep their first-round pick in the 2026 draft.

New York acquired Miller from the Vancouver Canucks in January for Filip Chytil, a top-13 protected 2025 first-round pick and Victor Mancini. The Canucks then flipped the first to Pittsburgh in a trade for Marcus Pettersson. Since the Rangers got the No. 12 pick in the draft lottery, they had the choice of giving the Penguins that pick or an unprotected first in 2026. By surrendering this year’s pick and keeping the 2026 one, New York protects itself from a worst-case scenario of finishing outside the playoffs again and giving up a lottery pick, which could be an early selection in a draft that features hyped prospect Gavin McKenna.

The Rangers, who hope to be a contending team in 2025-26, believe this move will give them more flexibility heading into the season, according to a league source. They could flip their 2026 first-rounder at the trade deadline and believe they could get more for a 2026 first than one in 2027. It also gives them flexibility to sign another team’s restricted free agent to an offer sheet between $4.68 million and $7.02 million this summer, which would require them to send their own first-round pick to that team as compensation if the offer sheet isn’t matched. New York might not have the cap flexibility to make that happen, though.

Losing the No. 12 pick in this weekend’s draft is still a blow for New York. History suggests there will be future NHL standouts available at that range, and New York has a middle-of-the-pack prospect pool. But the team acquired Miller, a top-line center, knowing it would have to give up a first-round pick. The Rangers now have a second-round pick, two thirds, a fourth, a fifth, two sixths and a seventh in the 2025 draft. Had the Rangers ceded the 2026 first, they would have had only one pick, a third, in the first four rounds of that draft.

What does this mean for the Penguins?

The Penguins are perfectly pleased with this news, even though many people in the organization expected the Rangers to hold onto this selection. Penguins president and GM Kyle Dubas’ goal is to get better “urgently,” as he often states, and having two top-12 picks in the 2025 draft should be of use to that end.

In a rarity, the Penguins now have back-to-back picks in the draft, as they are positioned at No. 11 and No. 12.

They still have their own first-round pick in 2026, along with three second-round selections in the very talented 2026 draft.

This also gives the Penguins ammunition if they wish to move up in this year’s draft. They are very big fans of Porter Martone, a player who could be picked anywhere from No. 3 through No. 9, according to scouts and draft experts. With two picks in the top 12, along with a second-round pick and three third-round picks, the Penguins would seem to have the draft capital necessary to slide up a few spots without selling the farm.

Dubas has made it clear that he’s willing and prefers to select the best player available in the first round of this draft. Now, he has two opportunities to do so. — Josh Yohe, Penguins beat reporter

Draft expert analysis

The league at large wasn’t sure what the Rangers would do. They seemed in a prime position to get a potential top-four defenseman in Radim Mrtka, Jackson Smith or Kashawn Aitcheson at No. 12, yet picks are often a better trade commodity than an actual prospect, and this is a below-average 10-to-15 group.

On the other hand, I’m sure the Rangers hope to be better next season and thus pick later in the first round. I likely would have kept the pick this year, as 12th is a major asset, and even if they took someone like Aitcheson or Smith, I think their trade value would have been higher than, say, the 20th pick in 2026 would be in the spring. — Corey Pronman

(Photo: Bruce Bennett / Getty Images)