Snapshots: McDonagh, Rodin, Escrow

Rangers defenseman Ryan McDonagh will miss at least the next two games as a result of his strained abdominal muscle, the team announced via Twitter.  He will be re-evaluated on Sunday per head coach Alain Vigneault.  While McDonagh has yet to score for New York so far this season, he leads their defenders in average ice time (23:22, more than two full minutes per game more than their next-highest, Kevin Shattenkirk) while he sits tied for second on the team in assists with 12.  As a result of the injury, Steven Kampfer drew back into the lineup after being a healthy scratch for the past two games.

Other news and notes from around the hockey world:

• Although now-former Canucks winger Anton Rodin asked for his release and has since signed in Switzerland with HC Davos, Jason Botchford of the Vancouver Province reports that he remains intent on playing in the NHL. Injuries and low usage played a role in his early departure and the 27-year-old is hopeful that his time in the NLA will help earn him another look in North America in the summer of 2019.
• Escrow is understandably a touchy subject around the league with teams withholding well over 10% of player salaries in past seasons (it went as high as 15.5% last year) in order to ensure that they get to a 50-50 revenue split as laid out in the CBA. It appears that the players are set to get a little bit of that money back as James Mirtle of The Athletic reports (Twitter link) that they will receive a 3% refund for 2015-16 as well as 2016-17.  With them receiving only that chunk back, there is bound to be talk as to whether or not it’s worthwhile for the NHLPA to exercise their 5% salary cap inflator next offseason as doing so would likely increase in further escrow being held back without much promise for recovery.