New York Rangers forward Matt Rempe left tonight’s game against the San Jose Sharks with an upper-body injury, according to a team announcement. Rempe left the game just after fighting veteran enforcer Ryan Reaves. This was not Rempe’s first bout with Reaves – the two fought during Rempe’s 2023-24 rookie season as well. The fight was Rempe’s tenth in the NHL, per Hockeyfights.com’s tracking, a total he’s reached in just 68 career games.
Interestingly, in Rempe’s media availability today, he noted that becoming an enforcer in the NHL isn’t something that came naturally for him – it’s not something that he viewed as a core part of his game at previous stops in his hockey career. He told the media “In junior, I was never a fighter or anything like that,” but added that he “did what he had to do” to carve out a path to the NHL in the pro ranks. The hope for Rempe will be that the upper-body injury that knocked him out of tonight’s game won’t be a significant one that costs him any additional time. Rempe has scored one goal in eight games for the Rangers this season, and is currently playing out the first year of a two-year, one-way $975K AAV contract.
Other injury updates from around the NHL:
- The Anaheim Ducks announced that defenseman Radko Gudas will not return to tonight’s game against the Boston Bruins. Based on the footage of the game, it appears Gudas suffered the injury crashing into the boards while attempting to protect and make a turn with the puck while being pressured by Bruins forward Jeffrey Viel. Gudas is a key veteran leader for the Ducks, serving as their captain and leading penalty-killer. For as long as his injury keeps him off the ice, expect veteran right-handed blueliner Jacob Trouba to take on an increased role and fill in for some of Gudas’ vacated minutes.
- Rempe wasn’t the only player to leave tonight’s Rangers vs. Sharks contest – the Sharks announced that veteran defenseman Nick Leddy will not return to the game after suffering an upper-body injury. Leddy looked visibly in pain after taking a hit from a forechecking Will Cuylle, and left the ice shortly afterward. Leddy, 34, has been the Sharks No. 4 defenseman so far this season in terms of ice time, playing a role on the penalty kill and registering two points in six games. The Sharks have seven healthy defensemen on their NHL roster beyond Leddy, so they should be well-positioned to absorb any absence this injury might cause. Leddy is playing out the final year of a four-year, $4MM contract he signed with the St. Louis Blues in 2022.
Thug Life, huh?
You spend a lot of time here, yet it seems that you either dislike most things about hockey and the rest of it makes you angry. It’s hockey. It is fun. It is entertaining. Maybe lighten up a bit.
Huh? Seen Nha here for years and don’t get the impression he/she’s angry or negative. Each to their own anyway, you don’t need to be the comment police. Maybe lighten up a bit.
Huh. Don’t think I’ve noticed much of anything else you’ve had to say, if anything, so I guess I have no idea whether you like hockey or not. Sounds like you like fighting just fine, so hey, give UFC a try, right? (Meanwhile, it’s kinda ironic that you’re responding to a post you think is a negative complaint by making a post that’s a negative complaint. Just sayin’.)
Me, I want to watch skilled players playing hockey. If I was into watching cementheads flailing at one another, YouTube’s full of backyard fighting clips of guys who’ve actually trained some for it. Then again, I don’t root for either the Rangers or the Sharks, so if they want to load up on the Rempes and Reaves who aren’t actually NHL caliber players, whee, go for it!
You have no idea whether I like hockey or not? How about the part of my post where I typed “It’s hockey. It is fun. It is entertaining.” Yep, I posted that. What I didn’t post was that I like fighting. You made an amusing pile of assumptions and posted that for me. All that said, I enjoy your posts. You and Wilf seem to have cornered the market on being consistently angry about the great game of hockey but you are both very fun to read.
OK now I know this is a new troll account. Good luck in life dude, hope you find what’s missing.
Maybe stop trolling, Cooperdoink.
I have said it from the beginning, As entertaining as Matt Rempe is to me on the ice, He’s never been more than a novelty, And tonight, It became even more clear, And, I didn’t find it as entertaining.
His possession metrics actually indicate a pretty solid 4th line player.
In reality he’s a pretty solid player when he’s playing north south hockey and not fighting.
Rempe fights a guy, water is wet.
Why you put everything on Rempe? He is tall kid, not a goon not a fighter but other goons take him as a target to compete. He wants to play but every other big gun wants to fight him cause he’s tall and hits hard so he fights to save his NHL dream.
Tyler Myers is tall…doesn’t fight 14% of his games