Brendan Smith (Photo by Scott W. Grau/Icon Sportswire)

The New York Rangers made a couple of moves on Tuesday afternoon, one at defense and one at forward. Prior to the NHL’s trade deadline on Wednesday, the Rangers acquired defenseman Brendan Smith and forward Daniel Catenacci.

In Smith, the Rangers pick up a veteran blue liner from the Detroit Red Wings who’s averaging nearly 20 minutes of ice time a game. What Smith lacks in offensive ability (67 points in 291 NHL games) he makes up for in versatility as he was the only Red Wing defenseman to average at least 15 minutes of even strength time, one minute of power play time and one minute of penalty kill time this season.

There’s no doubt defense has been one of the Rangers bigger problems this year and with adding Smith they’re hoping he can help tidy things up in front of super star goalie Henrik Lundqvist.

The Rangers other move on Tuesday was to pick up Daniel Catenacci from the Buffalo Sabres in exchange for Mat Bodie. Catenacci, who’s 23, racked up 13 points and 44 penalty minutes in 50 games for the Rochester Americans this season. Despite only having five goals and eight assists this season Catenacci has put up at least 10 goals and 20 assists in each of his last three seasons in the AHL prior to this one, so the potential certainly exists.

The big move a lot of fans were hoping to see go down was Kevin Shattenkirk, however he was traded to the Washington Capitals on Monday and so the Rangers, and their fans, will have to hope that in his place the Rangers defense, including newly acquired Brendan Smith, can create a tough and formidable defense to help contribute to a long playoff run!