Blue Jackets send Zherdev, Fritsche to Rangers

The New York Rangers and Columbus Blue Jackets completed a four-player trade Wednesday.

The Rangers acquired forwards Nikolai Zherdev and Dan Fritsche in exchange for defencemen Fedor Tyutin and Christian Backman.

Zherdev scored 26 goals in 82 regular-season games last season while Fritsche had 10 goals in 69 games.

Zherdev, the fourth overall pick in the 2003 draft, also tallied a career-high 61 points during the 2007-08 NHL campaign.

Tyutin was a second-round pick (40th overall) by the Rangers in 2001 and signed a four-year extension in February.

Backman was a first-round pick (24th overall) of the St. Louis Blues in 1998.

"The addition of Fedor and Christian to our lineup has really improved our puck-moving ability from the blue-line," said Blue Jackets GM Scott Howson.

"All strong teams are built from the back end out, and we feel like we made significant strides in that area today."