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New York Rangers Recall Matthew Robertson

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The New York Rangers have recalled defenseman Matthew Robertson from their AHL affiliate, the Hartford Wolf Pack.

With regular second-pairing left-shot defenseman K’Andre Miller set to miss tonight’s game against the Toronto Maple Leafs due to personal reasons, the Rangers are down a defenseman for tonight’s game.

Veteran Erik Gustafsson appears poised to take Miller’s spot next to captain Jacob Trouba, and then the decision for who will enter the lineup will come down to either Zac Jones or Robertson.

For an important game against a strong Maple Leafs team, one would assume that Jones, an intelligent player with nearly 50 games of NHL experience, would be the preferred option.

But seeing as Miller’s absence means the Rangers have a second-unit penalty killer to replace, Robertson could very well be called upon to make his NHL debut. Standing six-foot-three, 211 pounds Robertson offers a more defensive style and the kind of size and physicality Jones, who is five-foot-ten, does not provide.

Should he end up dressed for tonight’s game, Robertson would get the chance to make his NHL debut in the middle of his third season playing professional hockey.

The 22-year-old was a 2019 second-round pick, selected out of the WHL’s Edmonton Oil Kings. Robertson had a strong junior career. He skated in over 200 WHL games, won gold at the 2018 Hlinka Gretzky Cup, and was once named to the WHL’s Second All-Star Team. While Edmonton only got the chance to reach the playoffs once during Robertson’s time there, he played a crucial role on a team that made a run to the WHL’s Conference Finals.

In Hartford, Robertson has steadily risen in importance. While he isn’t much of an offensive producer, Robertson scored a career-high 23 points in 57 games last year. This season, he’s frequently spent time alongside former OHL star Mac Hollowell, and the defensive safety he provides to that pairing has helped Hollowell pile up points, as he has posted 22 in just 18 games.

While Robertson may only be in the NHL on a short-term basis due to the news regarding Miller, and he may end up just in the press box as a healthy scratch tonight, it would be a surprise if Robertson doesn’t get the chance to make his NHL debut at some point down the line.

Photos courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

K'Andre Miller Out For Personal Reasons

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  • New York Rangers defenseman K’Andre Miller will miss tonight’s game against the Toronto Maple Leafs for personal reasons. Head coach Peter Laviolette declined to go into more detail on the absence, disclosing simply that Miller was excused from the game for personal reasons.

Barclay Goodrow Questionable For Tonight

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  • Rangers winger Barclay Goodrow is questionable for tonight’s game against Washington, relays Mollie Walker of the New York Post. The veteran took a puck to the face in Tuesday’s loss to Ottawa and has not practiced since.  Goodrow has a goal and two assists in 23 games so far this season; if he can’t play tonight, veteran Riley Nash will likely take his place in the lineup.

New York Rangers Recall Riley Nash

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The New York Rangers announced today that they have recalled forward Riley Nash from the Hartford Wolf Pack of the AHL. The 34-year-old is a veteran of 627 NHL games, and will be playing for his seventh NHL team should he dress in any games with the Rangers during his recall.

The native of Consort, Alberta hasn’t played in an NHL game since the 2021-22 season when he dressed for three teams in a single season and posted just four assists in 49 games. He spent all last season in the AHL with the Charlotte Checkers where he had 24 goals and 35 assists in 66 games. This season with Hartford he has been nearly a point-a-game player once again registering nine goals and 10 assists in 20 games.

Nash signed a two-year deal with the Rangers back in July that is paying him the NHL minimum of $775K this season. The Rangers likely signed Nash in hopes of him being a player that could provide offense in the AHL and be a bottom-six depth option in the NHL should the team run into injury concerns. So far Nash has shown offensive flair in the AHL, and now with the Rangers running into injury concerns with their forward group, he could have an opportunity to show himself during this recall.  Nash has had periods of being able to put up points in the NHL, but his last solid offensive season was in 2017-18 when he was just 28 years of age.

The Rangers currently lead the surprisingly weak Metropolitan Division by eight points with a record of 18-5-1. They will be tested here in the coming days as Chris Kreider and Barclay Goodrow are both day-to-day and Kaapo Kakko and Filip Chytil are on the IR.

Afternoon Notes: Chytil, Rust, Bogosian

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New York Rangers head coach Peter Laviolette shared that forward Filip Chytil is, “moving in the right direction” with his upper-body injury, adding that he thinks Chytil will return this season. The 24-year-old centerman is currently on long-term injured reserve, sitting out of action since November 3rd with an upper-body injury.

Chytil appeared in 10 games with the Rangers before going down with injury, recording six assists and four penalty minutes. He was averaging nearly 16 minutes of ice time each game through the early season, the highest average of his seven-year NHL career. Chytil scored a career-high 22 goals and 45 points in 74 games last season, after recording either 22 or 23 points in each of his four prior NHL seasons. The step forward in scoring brought Chytil’s career totals to 144 points in 337 games.

Chytil is one of many injured Rangers forwards, with the team also without Barclay Goodrow and Chris Kreider, who are both day-to-day with injury, and Kaapo Kakko, who is alongside Chytil on injured reserve.

Other notes from around the league:

Injury Notes: Novak, Carrier, Goodrow, Kreider, Martin

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The Nashville Predators have activated Thomas Novak off of injured reserve. The 26-year-old has been out of action since November 14th with an upper-body injury. Nashville’s head coach, Andrew Brunette, suggested that Novak could return soon, saying, “I think Novak, depending on when I go back and see how his [injury] has healed… if he feels better, I think he’ll go.” 

Both Novak and Alexandre Carrier returned to the Predators’ practice on Thursday. Carrier is working back from an upper-body injury suffered on a hit from Minnesota’s Kirill Kaprizov.

Novak has appeared in 14 games with the Predators this season, scoring six goals and 12 points and recording six penalty minutes. Carrier has appeared in 22 games of his own, recording eight points and 12 penalty minutes. The Predators drafted Novak and Carrier with consecutive picks in the 2015 NHL Draft, taking Novak in the third round and Carrier in the fourth round. Carrier has scored 50 points through 166 career NHL games, while Novak has totaled 62 points in 92 games of his own.

Other injury notes from around the league:

Kakko Not Close To A Return

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  • Missing the last three games for the New York Rangers with an undisclosed injury, it does not appear forward Kaapo Kakko is close to a return. After practice today, Mollie Walker of the New York Post reported that Kakko has not yet resumed skating. After seemingly having a breakout season last year, Kakko is once again failing to produce up to his draft selection, scoring one goal and three points through 20 games this season.

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Paul Mara Appointed AHL Assistant Coach

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New York Rangers Recall Anton Blidh

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The New York Rangers have recalled forward Anton Blidh from their AHL affiliate, the Hartford Wolf Pack. The move adds a spare forward to the Rangers’ roster, something the team was missing for yesterday’s game against the Nashville Predators.

Blidh is unlikely to play, though he’ll serve as some insurance if any Rangers forward is unable to play tonight against the San Jose Sharks. Blidh, 28, is a physical depth forward who has played in 84 career NHL games. He has 12 career points and 41 career penalty minutes.

The Rangers have kept Blidh in Hartford this season, where he has four goals and seven points in 17 games. He last played in the NHL with the Colorado Avalanche last season, skating in 14 games for the club.

It’s somewhat curious that the Rangers elected to recall Blidh over veteran Alex Belzile, seeing as Belzile has been notably more successful at both the AHL and NHL levels than Blidh has been. Bezile has 21 points in 20 AHL games this season and scored 14 points in just 31 NHL games in 2022-23, a total that surpassed Blidh’s career scoring total despite Belzile playing fourth-line minutes on one of the NHL’s worst teams.

That being said, Blidh does have a longer history with the Rangers (he played for Hartford in 2022-23 as well) so that could have been a factor in deciding which forward would get this recall from the AHL.

New York Rangers To Place Kaapo Kakko, Filip Chytil On LTIR

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The New York Rangers are going to be placing Kaapo Kakko and Filip Chytil on long-term injured reserve, according to USA Today’s Vince Z. Mercogliano.

Mercogliano adds that the Rangers “don’t believe Kakko’s injury is season-ending,” although he is set to miss “significant time.”

Additionally, Chytil’s LTIR placement is retroactive to November 3rd, meaning he can be activated at any time. The move to LTIR clears cap space for recalls in the immediate term, as placing Chytil and his $4.437MM cap hit gives the club additional flexibility to make moves.

In more LTIR-related news for the Rangers, 2020-21 Norris Trophy winner Adam Fox is set to be activated off of the long-term injury list and is expected to return to the Rangers’ top pairing alongside Ryan Lindgren.

This update on Kakko is both good and bad news for the Rangers. On one hand, Kakko’s injury last night definitely looked severe. One could not be blamed for expecting Kakko to miss the entire season due to the injury, even without knowing more details about the injury.

So today’s news that the Rangers don’t expect the injury to be season-ending, and do believe that it “could have been worse,” is certainly welcome.

That being said, the loss of Kakko for such a significant amount of time is a major setback for the Rangers. The 22-year-old 2019 second-overall pick has undoubtedly had his fair share of issues this season, and his three points in 20 games are a far cry from the 18 goals and 40 points he scored in 2022-23.

That being said, this injury now robs Kakko of what looks to be, at the very least, a massive chunk of his 2023-24 season. While he had struggled in his first 20 games, there was no guarantee that those struggles would continue for the full 82-game slate.

Kakko’s defense and play along the boards have long been appreciated by the Rangers, so maybe with a few more months the points he started tallying with more regularity last season would start coming this year. Maybe, by the end of this season, Kakko could have put together a convincing case to be a long-term member of the Rangers’ core.

Now Kakko has lost the chance to take those major steps forward in his development, at least until far later in the season. Moreover, this injury means the Rangers will be working with significantly less information as to where Kakko stands and what his future holds when they enter contract negotiations with him this offseason.

As for Chytil, as mentioned this move to LTIR is purely cap-related. He’s begun skating again and is moving closer to a return to the ice. He’s been out since November 2nd.

Fox’s return is the good news for the Rangers. He’s the team’s most important defenseman and arguably its best skater. He’s scored more than 70 points in back-to-back seasons and is on pace to score 80 points if he stays healthy the rest of the way. Fox was injured in the same game as Chytil, but his return could come a bit sooner as he’s expected to play tomorrow.

Photos courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

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