1991: The Rangers acquire Mark Messier from the Edmonton Oilers in exchange for Bernie Nicholls, Louie DeBrusk, Steven Rice, and future considerations (Jeff Beukeboom).
"I don't think this franchise has ever had a player like him," Neil Smith, general manager of the Rangers, said of Messier.
"To trade for a Mark Messier seemed like a fantasy when we first started talking in July. It took us a lot of slaps in the face for us to realize this could be true."
After playing on all five of the Oilers' Stanley Cup-winning teams from 1984-90 (one more than the Rangers' total since entering the NHL in 1926), Messier holds out and is traded to New York for forwards Bernie Nicholls, Steven Rice and Louie DeBrusk.
Messier's effect on the Rangers is immediate: They win the Presidents' Trophy as the League's best regular-season team in 1991-92 and again in 1993-94, then end a 54-year championship drought by winning the Stanley Cup in 1994, with Messier scoring the Cup-winning goal in Game 7 of the Final.
2008: The Rangers play their first regular season game outside of North America, and defeat the Tampa Bay Lightning, 2-1, in Prague, Czech Republic.
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