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Maple Leafs Add Lane Lambert To Coaching Staff

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The Maple Leafs announced Wednesday that Lane Lambert has been added to incoming head coach Craig Berube’s staff as an associate. He’ll be replacing assistant Dean Chynoweth, who the team said won’t return next season.

TSN’s Darren Dreger reported earlier this week that Lambert would likely join Berube’s bench in Toronto. The 59-year-old spent parts of the last two seasons as the Islanders’ head coach before being fired in January. He’s long been a disciple of Barry Trotz, serving under him as an assistant or associate for the better part of the last 15 years during his coaching tenures with the Capitals, Isles and Preds, but that trend is officially broken with today’s move.

The Leafs didn’t specify Lambert’s responsibilities as an associate. He held the title under Trotz in New York for four seasons before being promoted to head coach after his departure in 2022. The nomenclature implies that he won’t be a direct replacement for Chynoweth in terms of job responsibilities. Chynoweth, 55, had been with the club for the past three seasons.

Berube still needs to finalize the rest of his staff. There’s already one opening created by former assistant Manny Malhotra, who departed the organization last month to take a minor-league head coaching job with the Canucks. The future of assistant coach Guy Boucher, who was in charge of their power play with a 4.8% success rate in their first-round loss to the Bruins, is also in question. Former Flames assistant Marc Savard, who parted ways with the club last month, is a strongly speculated candidate to join Berube’s staff after previously working with him during his days as head coach of the Blues.

Kraken Begin Extension Discussions With Matthew Beniers

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The Kraken have begun preliminary contract discussions with top pending restricted free agent Matthew Beniers, per David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period. Their first draft pick in franchise history just completed the final season of his entry-level contract and is in need of a new deal this summer.

Beniers, still 22, turned pro to end the 2021-22 campaign after returning for his sophomore season with the University of Michigan. After ending the season on a tear with nine points in his first 10 NHL games, he took over first-line center duties entering 2022-23. His 24 goals were second on the team, his 57 points ranked fourth, and his +14 rating and 17:09 average time on ice helped him win the Calder Trophy as the league’s top rookie.

This year, Beniers endured a bit of a sophomore slump. Most of his underlying metrics remained the same, as he actually had more individual shot attempts than last year and maintained a CF% in the 51% range, but his production dropped to 15 goals and 37 points in 77 games. He was one of many affected by a major team-wide swing in shooting percentage, finishing at just a 9.1% rate this season compared to 11.6% in 2022-23.

It’s still unclear if he has the offensive upside to carry a team to a championship as their first-line center, but those concerns have persisted since his draft day. His floor as a high-end, defensively responsible pivot has already been realized, and he’s projected to again hold down first-line minutes next season with the team stating its preference to keep top goal-scorer Jared McCann on the wing.

Notably, Pagnotta says Kraken general manager Ron Francis isn’t yet sure if he wants to ink Beniers to a bridge deal, allowing them to sign him once again as an RFA in a few years, or go long-term immediately in hopes of getting a discount on his market value through his mid-20s. Evolving Hockey projects an eight-year extension for Beniers to cost $7.2MM annually, which could pay dividends if he can be a consistent 60-to-70-point player. If not, though, that’s a bit pricey for a player better served as a matchup second-line center. A three-year bridge deal, however, projects to cost just $5MM annually.

Either way, Pagnotta indicates negotiations are expected to kick into high gear after the scouting combine wraps up next week. There’s no huge sense of urgency to get a deal done before July 1, but it would give Francis a higher degree of cost certainty as he looks to improve his roster in free agency.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports.

Jacob Markstrom, Linus Ullmark Are Devils’ Top Goalie Targets

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The Devils’ pursuit of a bonafide starting goaltender has been a dominant storyline for months and remains one of the few certainties of the summer. While there are more than a handful of qualified names on the trade block, the Flames’ Jacob Markström and the Bruins’ Linus Ullmark are the two likeliest names that New Jersey general manager Tom Fitzgerald would swing a deal for, sources told Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic on Tuesday.

Fitzgerald also confirmed to reporters yesterday that he would make the Devils’ 2024 first-round pick, 10th overall, available in trade talks. In what’s viewed as a deep class of high-end talent, that pick could very well be enough to pry Markström or Ullmark away from their respective teams, although a low-to-medium-value asset may also be required.

The other big fish on the goalie trade market, 2022 Vezina Trophy nominee Juuse Saros, doesn’t appear likely. He’s only been connected to the Devils sparingly in recent weeks and wasn’t mentioned at all as an option for New Jersey in LeBrun’s reporting yesterday.

Markström and Ullmark are the elder statesmen of the group, but as such, could cost less to acquire than the sub-30 Saros. Ullmark finds himself in the conversation after throwing up a .924 SV% average over three seasons with the Bruins, but he’s only started more than half his team’s games in a season once. That was Boston’s record-setting 2022-23 campaign when he won the Vezina Trophy after recording a 40-6-1 record, .938 SV% and 1.89 GAA.

Markström’s numbers have been more inconsistent over the past few seasons, but he has a much longer track record of being a true starter. The 34-year-old Swede has started more than half his team’s games in each of the last seven years and is two years removed from a league-leading nine shutouts that helped him earn his only career Vezina nomination in 2022.

He’s coming off a verifiably above-average season, too, posting a .905 SV% and stopping 13.7 goals above expected (MoneyPuck) despite a .500 record. The other advantage is his contract – he’s got two seasons left at a $6MM cap hit compared to Ullmark, who’s only signed through next season.

Markström isn’t the higher-ceiling option, but he may be the safer one. He carries a full no-move clause, but multiple reports indicated he waived it for a move to New Jersey before this season’s trade deadline that ultimately fell through. LeBrun confirmed that notion yesterday.

HockeyAllsvenskan’s Djurgardens IF Signs Jonny Tychonick

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Senators 2018 second-round pick Jonny Tychonick is heading overseas. After seeing his exclusive signing rights with the club expire late last offseason, he’s signing a one-year deal with Djurgårdens IF of the HockeyAllsvenskan, Sweden’s second-tier pro league.

Tychonick, 24, originally had his signing rights entrusted to the Sens indefinitely after they drafted him out of the British Columbia Hockey League, but that changed when he began his freshman season at the University of North Dakota the season following his draft. A fifth year of collegiate play in 2022-23 extended his exclusive signing window with Ottawa until Aug. 15 last year, but he instead opted to sign a minor-league contract with the Maple Leafs’ AHL affiliate, the Toronto Marlies.

Once a promising offensive talent, Tychonick had only 15 points in 52 games with North Dakota before transferring to Nebraska-Omaha for his junior, senior and graduate seasons. He failed to break out there, either but did have a reasonably successful overage year with 26 points and a +8 rating in 35 games. Still, that wasn’t enough for him to land an NHL deal with the Sens, or anywhere else for that matter.

He also played just four games for the Marlies this season after signing his deal, spending most of the campaign on assignment to the now-defunct Newfoundland Growlers of the ECHL. He had a strong first professional season there, racking up 43 points in 51 games, but it still didn’t draw interest in his services from NHL clubs.

Tychonick now opts to try his hand overseas and help the Stockholm-based Djurgårdens to promotion back to the Swedish Hockey League. They’re gearing up for their third straight season in the second-tier league after being demoted in 2022, losing the promotion series in back-to-back years.

Ilya Usau Signs With KHL’s Dinamo Minsk

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Ilya Usau has signed with Dinamo Minsk of the Kontinental Hockey League, the team announced. The move comes more than a week after he was placed on unconditional waivers for the purposes of contract termination by the Lightning.

James Mirtle of The Athletic reported at the time that Tampa’s release of Usau was likely a precursor to his return to the KHL. It wasn’t clear where he’d be signing, but it’s a surprise to no one to see the Belarus native return home. The 6’1″ pivot is the second signing from North America that Minsk has made this week, joining minor-league veteran defender Xavier Ouellet.

Usau, 22, has spent the last two years playing for the Lightning’s primary minor-league affiliate, the AHL’s Syracuse Crunch. Undrafted, he signed with the Lightning as a free agent in March 2022 after a breakout season with Dinamo that saw him record nine goals and 26 points in 40 games while also representing Belarus at that year’s Olympic qualifiers.

His results with the Crunch were middling and failed to ever thrust him into consideration for an NHL recall. Over 99 appearances since 2022-23, Usau managed 11 goals and 30 points with a +1 rating. He played only 42 out of the Crunch’s 72 regular-season games this season, recording seven goals and seven assists, and did not play in the Calder Cup Playoffs.

Had Usau honored the final year of his entry-level contract next season, there was a strong chance he would have been non-tendered by the Lightning next summer and become an unrestricted free agent anyway. Instead, he gets to return home a year early in hopes of re-establishing himself as a professional regular. He’s still young enough that he may earn consideration as an international free agent signing again down the line, but don’t expect to hear his name in NHL circles for a while unless a massive breakout season arrives.

Evening Notes: Tanev, Necas, Heinen

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Dallas Stars defenseman Chris Tanev has revealed the injury that forced him out of Game 5 of the Western Conference Finals, documented by NHL.com’s Taylor Baird (Twitter link). Per Tanev, he felt a pop in his ankle in his first shift after blocking an Evander Kane shot. The resulting injury was to his peroneal tendons and won’t require surgery to fix.

Tanev is set to become an unrestricted free agent on July 1st, having played the final year of a four-year, $18MM deal signed with the Calgary Flames the last time he hit the market. Tanev has solidified his status as one of the staunchest defenders in the league on the contract – averaging over 20 minutes of ice time across 278 games since 2020 despite totaling just 72 points. Tanev’s played with just three teams over 14 years in the NHL and could continue that loyalty with the Stars, with the team interested in re-signing the veteran before he hits the market on July 1st.

Other notes from around the league:

  • Both the Carolina Hurricanes and Martin Necas are still “preferring” to part ways, per Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman on the Donie and Dhali Show (Twitter link). Friedman adds that the Hurricanes would likely be targeting top prospects for Necas – adding that he doesn’t envision a swap of Necas and Filip Hronek when speaking to Donnie and Dhali’s Canucks theme. Necas has scored 124 points across 159 games in the last two seasons, emerging as a legitimate scoring threat in a Hurricanes lineup full of offensive talent. Carolina will now look to open up cap  space, and reinforce their depth charts, after trading three top prospects and two draft picks for Jake Guentzel at the Trade Deadline.
  • The Boston Bruins are expected to begin talks with Danton Heinen about contract extension soon, shares The Fourth Period’s David Pagnotta (Twitter link). Heinen rejoined the Bruins for this season after a three-year tenure split between the Anaheim Ducks and Pittsburgh Penguins. He scored 17 goals and 36 points in 74 appearances in the reunion, offering flexible offense from the bottom of the depth charts. He’ll be set for his eighth NHL season, and his sixth with the Bruins, with a new deal this summer.

Free Agent Focus: San Jose Sharks

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Free agency is now just a month away and teams are looking ahead to when it opens.  There will be several impact players set to hit the open market in July while many teams have key restricted free agents to re-sign as well.  We continue our look around the NHL with an overview of the free agent situation for the Sharks.

Key Unrestricted Free Agents

F Alexander Barabanov – Barabanov isn’t expected to return to San Jose this summer, instead set on testing free agency after what was a turbulent season. Barabanov played in just 46 games, missing time with a menagerie of injuries – from a broken finger in October, to illness in December, and then a season-ending ankle injury in late March. And he wasn’t particularly effective on the ice, posting just four goals and 13 points to go with 12 penalty minutes and a -24. It was a disappointing encore to Barabanov’s strong 2022-23, when he scored 15 goals and 47 points in 68 games. But he’ll enter the open market with the confidence that teams are at least interested in his services. The Sharks reportedly had a Trade Deadline move that would have sent Barabanov to the New York Rangers shutdown due to complications with salary retention. He’ll get a chance to connect with New York one-on-one on July 1st.

F Mike Hoffman – The extent to which any of San Jose’s depth players were impactful this season is hard to gauge. Hoffman wasn’t spared from the tough year, posting a career-low 10 goals and 23 points this season, though he still outpaced many of his bottom-six peers in scoring. Hoffman was serviceable, and his $4.5MM cap hit went a long way towards helping the Sharks reach the cap floor. He’ll be set for a deal much closer to league minimum this summer, though the chance to secure cheap, veteran experience in what’s bound to be a very young lineup could be tempting for San Jose.

F Kevin Labanc – Labanc is also expected to move on from the Sharks this summer after a fall-out with Sharks head coach David Quinn. He was a healthy scratch for much of the year, ultimately appearing in just 46 games and recording nine points. Labanc has fallen a long way from his breakout 2018-19 season, when he posted 17 goals and 56 points in 82 regular-season games, then added nine points in 20 playoff games. But he hasn’t been able to rediscover that scoring, with his 15 goals and 33 points last year the closest he’s come. Labanc has a modest 82 goals and 225 points across 478 career games, all coming in San Jose. That stat line should be enough to earn him a low-stakes contract on the open market, from a team hoping a change of scenery can rekindle Labanc’s scoring potential.

G Devin Cooley – The Sharks acquired Cooley in a last-minute trade at the Trade Deadline, sending the Buffalo Sabres a 2025 seventh-round pick to bolster their goaltending corps after moving Kaapo Kahkonen. And while certainly a minor move, a string of injuries would force Cooley into the NHL lineup near the end of the season. He played in the first six games of his NHL career, posting two wins and saving 167 of the 192 shots he faced, good for an .870 save percentage. They were noteworthy performances, especially when juxtaposed by Mackenzie Blackwood’s five-game losing streak and .890 save percentage to end the season. Cooley hasn’t played himself into a lineup role just yet but he was strong when called upon, even beating out Magnus Chrona for the team’s backup role. San Jose is almost certain to bring in more depth this summer, after having to lean on five different goaltenders this season. That’ll leave no shortage of competition for minor league minutes, though Cooley should enter next season as a favorite to start for the AHL’s San Jose Barracuda.

Other UFAs: F Justin Bailey, F Ryan Carpenter, F Brandon Coe, F Jacob Peterson, D Jacob MacDonald, G Eetu Makniemi

Key Restricted Free Agents

F Luke Kunin – Kunin established himself as a core member of the Sharks this season, while serving in his first season as one of the team’s alternate captains. While not his best year statistically, Kunin was one of San Jose’s few spark plugs – ready with a deserved goal, heavy hit, or scrappy fight any time the team needed a boost. And while his performance only amounted to 11 goals and 18 points on the year, his intangibles were enough to earn a spot at the 2024 World Championship with Team USA, where he added three points in seven games. His benefits in San Jose know no bounds per David Quinn, who told Erika Towne of Fear The Fin, “I can’t say enough about that guy. I would go to war with him any day. You want him on your team every day. He’s always the guy doing it. So it’s just who he is; it’s who he’s been his whole career.” And while Quinn’s time in San Jose has ended, his sentiment remains – Kunin is popular. The Sharks will likely look to lock up Kunin for as long as they can this summer.

F Filip Zadina – Zadina was one of San Jose’s few beacons of hope this season, posting the most goals and points of the team’s bottom-six – though that only amounted to 13 goals and 23 points in 72 games. Still, he was one short of the career-high 14 goals and 24 points he posted with the Detroit Red Wings last season, and seemed to look a bit more comfortable making individual plays in the San Jose system. The team signed him to a one-year, $1.1MM contract last summer, hoping his play would earn him much more of a payday this year. That hasn’t entirely panned out, though Zadina’s season was likely enough of a lateral step to warrant a new deal. He’ll look to breakout on that deal, supported by San Jose’s influx of top end prospects Macklin Celebrini and Will Smith.

D Calen Addison – The Sharks acquired Addison in one of the first trades of the season, sending Adam Raska and a 2026 fifth-round pick back to the Minnesota Wild. And San Jose was clearly excited about the addition, awarding Addison roughly 20 minutes of ice time each night through his first 11 games. But his play didn’t keep up and Addison ultimately found his everyday role on the team’s bottom-pair. He posted just 12 points in 60 games with the Sharks while searching for that role, and while his play was enough to warrant minutes over fringe lineup piece Marc-Edouard Vlasic  and the oft-injured Ty Emberson. Addison still has potential, though he’s running out of time to prove it. The Sharks will be laying out his leash with the price and term of his deal this summer.

Other RFAs: F Thomas Bordeleau, F Jack Studnicka, D Henry Thrun, D Ty Emberson

Cap Space

The Sharks have a very busy summer ahead, with a total of 17 players facing the open market. But they’ll have more than enough room to both bring back their choices of the bunch and search for major additions on the open market, boasting $37.22MM in cap space, the second-most in the league. They aren’t likely to spend that full amount, though the additions of Celebrini and Smith could be enough to sway a few notable free agents to the lineup. San Jose will hope that’s the case, as they look to give their next generation of stars the best platform to start their career from.

Photos courtesy of USA Today Network.

Ethan Bear To Be Activated From NHLPA Player Assistance Program

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Ethan Bear is expected to be activated from the NHLPA Player Assistance Program according to CapFriendly, although the Washington Capitals have yet to confirm the news. Bear originally went into the program on March 27th of this year, missing the last 18 games of the regular season for the Capitals and an additional four postseason contests.

It has been an interesting year and a half for Bear, who, after having injured his shoulder in last summer’s IIHF World Championships, was non-tendered by the Vancouver Canucks, allowing him to become a free agent. Since the injury took nearly six months to heal, Bear had to wait until late December before ultimately signing with a team.

At the time of his signing, reporting in early December suggested Bear was being monitored by three teams — the Toronto Maple Leafs, Canucks, and his eventual landing spot, the Capitals. On December 28th, Washington signed Bear to a two-year, $4.125MM contract, eventually enticing the defenseman with an extra year on the contract.

Unfortunately for Bear, he was used sporadically by the Capitals, playing in 24 games while managing just under 15 minutes of ice time. Coupled with the lengthy layoff from the shoulder injury, Bear did not look like the same defenseman from only a season ago.

Now that Bear is fully out of the Player Assistance Program, he will have a second opportunity to prove his worth in Washington. However, with notable right-handed shot defensemen already signed for the 2024-25 season, Bear may ask for a change of scenery this offseason.

Offseason Checklist: Winnipeg Jets

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The offseason has arrived for all but a handful of teams who are still taking part in the playoffs.  Accordingly, it’s now time to examine what they will need to accomplish over the coming months.  Next up is a look at the Jets.

The Jets entered the season on a high note, knowing that franchise cornerstones Connor Hellebuyck and Mark Scheifele would be around long-term after signing matching seven-year, $59.5MM extensions. That excitement translated to their second-best season in franchise history, ending the season on an eight-game tear to match their record 52 wins set in the 2017-18 season.

However, they were the only team with home-ice advantage in the first round to lose their series, bowing out in five games to the Avalanche. With new head coach Scott Arniel in place after Rick Bowness announced his retirement, Jets general manager Kevin Cheveldayoff has some other big-ticket items to check off his list this summer to keep the Jets in contention.

Make A Call On Ehlers

28-year-old Dane Nikolaj Ehlers is heading into the final season of his $6MM AAV contract. After his worst regular-season offensive showing in five years and going without a goal in the playoffs, his trade (and extension) value is lower than in past summers.

That leaves Cheveldayoff in a pickle about whether to trade the longtime top-six fixture or work on keeping him in Winnipeg through his prime. Murat Ates of The Athletic reported last month that Cheveldayoff would at least explore moving the winger as the 2024 NHL Draft nears.

While his 2023-24 season may not have been up to his recent standards, by no means did Ehlers have a bad year. In fact, he’s routinely given the Jets great value for his $6MM cap hit over the life of his contract, which began back in 2018-19. Despite not seeing heavy power-play usage, keeping his average ice time under 16 minutes per game for a second straight season, he still managed 25 goals, 61 points and a +27 rating while playing in all 82 games.

His even-strength possession play has long been among the best on the Jets. He’s never had a season with a negative relative shot attempt share to his teammates, consistently tilting the ice in Winnipeg’s favor.

But for a team looking to be Stanley Cup contenders after a 110-point season, his poor playoff history is a rightful cause for concern. The 2014 ninth-overall pick has just four goals and 14 points in 37 postseason contests in Winnipeg with a -9 rating. None of those four goals came during this year’s first-round elimination.

As with any future UFA entering a contract year, the Jets have three options: trade him now, work on an extension when he’s eligible to sign one starting July 1 or play the waiting game. But his trade value won’t be as high in-season if they decide to move him as a rental – an acquiring team would certainly be willing to pay more for a full season of his services plus a longer window to discuss an extension.

Winnipeg has forward help coming in the form of recent first-round picks Colby Barlow and Rutger McGroarty, but not as soon as next season. Trading Ehlers leaves a major hole in their top nine as they attempt to reshape their roster, and it’s unlikely they’d be able to find a better value proposition to replace his role on the open market.

Re-Sign Monahan

One clear hole on the Jets’ depth chart is their second-line center. It’s unlikely that the organization trusts 22-year-old Cole Perfetti, who averaged fewer than 14 minutes per game last year and was a healthy scratch for most of their brief playoff run, to take over that role come opening night.

It was an issue last year, too, but the Jets addressed it weeks before the deadline by acquiring Sean Monahan from the Canadiens. Like many others, the 29-year-old struggled to produce in the playoffs, but he did end the regular season with 13 goals in 34 games for the Jets. Injuries have troubled him in the past, but he managed to stay healthy for all 83 games he was eligible to play in thanks to the trade and scored 59 points, his most in five years.

There aren’t many options on the open market considerably better than Monahan, especially for the money. Signing him in the next few weeks to keep him from becoming a UFA would likely result in a mid-term deal in the $5MM range annually.

That’ll likely be significantly cheaper than the top option on the market, Elias Lindholm, who’s coming off a steady decline in production over the past three seasons and scored fewer points per game than Monahan this year. Bringing Monahan back allows Arniel to keep deploying captain Adam Lowry in a comfortable third-line shutdown role, too, instead of forcing him to be more of a factor offensively.

Revamp Defense

Three defenders who logged significant time on the Winnipeg blue line last season – Dylan DeMelo, Brenden Dillon and Colin Miller – are set to become UFAs next month. They may engage in more aggressive extension discussions with DeMelo and Miller, but reports last month indicated Dillon is unlikely to be back with the Jets.

If at all possible, the Jets should be taking the DeMelo negotiations down to the wire. He grew into a top-pairing role as a serviceable partner to Josh Morrissey this season, putting up 31 points in 82 games while logging 21:44 per night. His +46 rating is almost certainly inflated due to his quality of teammates (and the quality of his goaltender), but the Jets have still controlled 51.2% of expected goals with DeMelo on the ice since his acquisition from the Senators in 2020.

That still leaves more than a couple of spots up for grabs, though, especially considering 32-year-old Nate Schmidt and his $5.95MM cap hit appears to be a strong buyout candidate as he enters the final season of his deal. One of them will likely be earmarked for 2019 first-round pick Ville Heinola, who’s primed for more extended NHL minutes next season after three years of quality top-pairing play for their AHL affiliate. Outside of Morrissey, Neal Pionk and Dylan Samberg also project to be regulars, with Logan Stanley in the mix as well, although the hulking 26-year-old was a healthy scratch for most of last season.

If they can’t extend DeMelo, that leaves a hole alongside Morrissey that will need to be filled either via free agency or via an Ehlers trade. Other than Pionk, they don’t have any other NHL-ready right-shot defenders, and he’s not suited for top-pairing duties. Brandon Montour, Brett Pesce and Matt Roy are the top right-shot options on the UFA market. Expect Cheveldayoff to engage with most, if not all of them, if they still have a vacancy along Morrissey come July 1.

Back-Up Hellebuyck

The Jets don’t need to worry much about “the other guy” when Hellebuyck is consistently throwing up save percentages north of .920 while starting 60-plus games, even as the league average for both dwindles. But Winnipeg has also been able to bank a few extra points in the standings each season thanks to strong play from Hellebuyck’s backups, which have been a rotating cast of Laurent Brossoit, Eric Comrie and David Rittich over the past few seasons.

Brossoit has done so with the most consistency lately, returning to the organization in free agency last summer after a brief stop (and a Stanley Cup win) in Vegas. He was excellent in his limited action this season, posting a 15-5-2 record with a .927 SV% in 22 starts and one relief appearance. He’s unlikely to return as he searches for a chance at more starts on the open market this summer, though.

Winnipeg doesn’t have any young internal options ready for promotion yet, so that means they’ll be hunting for Hellebuyck’s backup on the UFA market for the third summer in a row. Casey DeSmith, Kevin Lankinen and Scott Wedgewood are the best/most consistent options with experience that would likely settle for 20-25 starts next year.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports.

Rangers Notes: Fox, Trouba, Vesey, Wheeler, Wennberg

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With any team’s end-of-season media availability, especially after a long run in the Stanley Cup playoffs, a slew of injuries are typically revealed to the public. During the media availability for the New York Rangers, injuries were reported for defensemen Adam Fox and Jacob Trouba, while the injury keeping Jimmy Vesey out of the Eastern Conference Finals was brought to light.

In the team’s Round One series against the Washington Capitals, Vince Z. Mercogliano of USA Today reports Fox reaggravated his knee injury during a knee-on-knee collision with Capitals’ defenseman Nick Jensen. After only one month into the 2023-24 NHL season, Fox was placed on the Rangers’ long-term injured reserve due to a knee injury, keeping him out of the lineup from November 2nd to November 29th. The change in play was noticeable, as Fox only tallied six assists in 12 games following the series against Washington, a stark dropoff compared to his previous postseason play.

Staying on the blue line, Arthur Staple of The Athletic reported that defenseman and captain Jacob Trouba dealt with a broken ankle. However, later reports suggested that the fractured ankle fully healed by the end of March, and Trouba was largely healthy for New York’s run to the Eastern Conference Finals. Still, Trouba set a career-high in postseason points with seven in 16 games but still led the team with 22 PIMs during the playoffs.

Lastly, Dan Rosen of the NHL mentions that Vesey was dealing with a separated shoulder during the penultimate series which would keep him out of the lineup. Thankfully, the report suggests that Vesey will not require surgery to repair his shoulder, and should return after a few weeks of rehab.

Other Rangers notes:

  • Playing on a team not named the Winnipeg Jets for the first time in 12 years, the 2023-24 NHL season may have been the last for forward Blake Wheeler. Mercogliano of USA Today relayed that a decision regarding his future has not been made, but he will talk it through with his family this summer. It would not be surprising to see Wheeler hang up his skates, as the soon-to-be 38-year-old veteran suffered a gruesome leg injury on February 15th against the Montreal Canadiens — an injury that would keep him off the ice for nearly four months.
  • Peter Baugh of The Athletic reported that Alexander Wennberg would like to return to the team this offseason after being acquired by the Rangers at this year’s trade deadline. Wennberg was originally acquired from the Seattle Kraken for New York’s second-round pick in 2024 and Dallas’ fourth-round pick in 2025. Brought in to fill the void in the team’s third-line center position, Wennberg put up two points in 16 postseason games for the Rangers while averaging nearly 16 and a half minutes of ice time.

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