Bickel traded to Rangers in swap of minor-league defensemen.

Defenseman Stu Bickel, a Ducks farmhand since 2008, has been traded to the New York Rangers for minor-league defenseman Nigel Williams.

Williams, 22, has one assist in 12 games for the Hartford Wolf Pack, the Rangers’ American Hockey League affiliate. A former second-round draft pick by the Avalanche (51st overall in 2006), Williams possesses a good frame (6-foot-5, 237 pounds) but was unhappy playing in Hartford according to one report.

Since the Ducks signed him as a free agent out of the University of Minnesota, Bickel has split the last three seasons between the AHL and the ECHL. In six games this season for the AHL’s Syracuse Crunch, Bickel had three assists and 14 penalty minutes. He also played in one scoreless game for the ECHL’s Elmira Jackals.