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New York Rangers Expected To Have Busy Offseason

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According to Arthur Staple of The Athletic, the New York Rangers are expected to be one of the busier teams this offseason, along with the Buffalo Sabres, Seattle Kraken, and Utah Mammoth.

That wasn’t the only assertion Staple made in his report. He indicated that General Manager Chris Drury will look to shake up the roster and lists Igor Shesterkin, Adam Fox, and Artemi Panarin as the only true untouchables on the roster.

The news comes with little surprise given that the trio was inarguably the top three performers on a disappointing Rangers team this past season. Still, outside of those three, it would make little sense for New York to part ways with the likes of J.T. Miller, Vincent Trocheck, or Gabriel Perreault, either, for various reasons.

Additionally, moving on from higher-priced players such as Mika Zibanejad and Alexis Lafrenière could prove difficult this offseason, given the Rangers would undoubtedly be selling low on either piece. However, if New York frees up some cap space, Staple believes they already have a target in place.

Vladislav Gavrikov, who has spent the last two-and-a-half years with the Los Angeles Kings, would immediately become an interest for the Rangers with more cap flexibility. Gavrikov has already indicated he’d like to sign a longer-term extension with Los Angeles, but the new regime led by Ken Holland could have different ideas.

The Russian defensive defenseman would immediately become one of the top options on the blue line in a thin free agent class. Gavrikov averaged above a 50.0% mark in CorsiFor% at even strength during this time with the Kings, and an on-ice save percentage at even strength of 91.6%.

Given that the Rangers finished 27th in the league in shots against and 25th in high-danger scoring chances against during the 2024-25 season, Gavrikov would help alleviate many of their issues. Still, assuming Gavrikov signs around the projected mark between $6.5MM and $7.5MM, the Rangers would have difficulty making that work at the present with only $8.4MM in cap space heading into the offseason.

Rangers Activate Adam Fox Off Injured Reserve

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The Rangers will welcome back a key cog of their back end to the lineup tonight in a crucial game against Columbus.  Mollie Walker of the New York Post relays (Twitter link) that defenseman Adam Fox has been activated off injured reserve, meaning he is ready to return.

The 27-year-old had missed the last eight games due to an upper-body injury that was believed to be a shoulder issue.  While Fox isn’t producing at the same level as in previous years that saw him surpass the 70-point mark for three straight seasons, he’s still tied for second on the team in scoring among full-season Rangers (tied with Mika Zibanejad, behind Artemi Panarin) with 48 points in 58 outings while averaging over 23 minutes a night of playing time.

Fox’s absence has also coincided with a stark drop in production for New York’s power play; the team played to a 2/26 mark with the man advantage in his absence.  While the Rangers’ power play success rate isn’t the highest – they sit 24th in the league in that category – getting their top option at the point back can only help.

Tonight’s contest is critical for both teams with the Rangers and Blue Jackets tied for the final Wild Card spot in the Eastern Conference with Columbus holding the tiebreaker so Fox’s return is certainly timely.  It’s expected he’ll take the place of newcomer Carson Soucy who is slated to be a healthy scratch.

Rangers Recall Matthew Robertson, To Place Adam Fox On IR

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After losing a pair of defensemen during last night’s game against the New York Islanders, it comes as no surprise the New York Rangers have recalled defenseman Matthew Robertson from their AHL affiliate, the Hartford Wolf Pack. Unfortunately, the recall comes with a major blow to their postseason chances as Arthur Staple of The Athletic reported the team is expected to place Adam Fox on injured reserve with an upper-body injury.

Fox left Tuesday night’s game in the third period due to the upper-body injury after tallying one assist in 17:48 of ice time. As Staple shared in his report, the Rangers are optimistic he can return for the final stretch of the regular season.

Still, Fox’s injury will severely impact New York’s playoff chances for the foreseeable future. Only one year removed from earning the ’Regular Season Champions’ banner at Madison Square Garden, the Rangers have posted a 29-25-4 record through 58 games this season. At the time of writing, that record is good for two points back of the final wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference.

Despite their proximity to the last playoff spot in the standings, MoneyPuck gives New York a 43.4% chance of reaching the 2025 Stanley Cup playoffs — lower than their odds for the Ottawa Senators and Detroit Red Wings. Fox is one of the handful of players on the Rangers who hasn’t disappointed this season scoring five goals and 48 points in 58 games averaging 23:14 of ice time per night with a +5 rating.

Meanwhile, Robertson is positioned to debut in the NHL, albeit under unfortunate circumstances. The former 49th overall pick of the 2019 NHL Draft has been impressive for the Wolf Pack this year scoring one goal and 18 points in 47 contests with a +2 rating. The Rangers still carry six healthy defensemen on the roster outside of Fox but Robertson should likely debut given the length of Fox’s recovery timeline.

If general manager Chris Drury is hell-bent on getting New York to the playoffs for a fourth straight season the injury to Fox should affect their trade deadline strategy. The Rangers may ultimately hang on to oft-mentioned trade candidates such as Ryan Lindgren and K’Andre Miller. Additionally, Drury could begin putting feelers out in the rental market for right-handed defensemen.

East Notes: Fox, Panarin, Kulemin

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Rangers defenseman Adam Fox is back to full health after playing through a re-aggravated strained MCL in his right knee in the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs, he told the New York Post’s Mollie Walker on Tuesday.

“It’s funny because I missed 10 games, but it feels like you’ve missed like 30 when you’re sitting out and everything,” Fox said, referring to when he initially sustained the injury in November of last season. “I think when people get hurt, you maybe come back and you’re tentative. I think it’s a normal reaction. I think overall, still, the year was good. Obviously, now, that’s in the past and I feel healthy now. Not too worried about any of that stuff anymore.”

The re-occurrence of the injury during the Rangers’ First Round win over the Capitals did limit Fox’s effectiveness, keeping him to a rather pedestrian eight assists in 16 games. But it didn’t hamper him at all upon his return during the regular season. The 26-year-old managed the best offensive showing of his five-year NHL career, torching opponents for 56 assists and 73 points in 72 games – not career-highs, but his first time breaking the point-per-game plateau. He averaged north of 23 minutes per game and finished top five in Norris Trophy voting for the fourth year in a row.

There’s more out of the Eastern Conference:

  • The Rangers had a contender for the most memorable game of the preseason Tuesday night at Madison Square Garden, erasing a 4-1 deficit in the final 6:10 of regulation to defeat the Islanders 6-4. But it came with a price – star winger Artemi Panarin left the game in the third period with a lower-body injury and is still being evaluated, head coach Peter Laviolette said last night. There’s yet to be an update on the 32-year-old, who finished fifth in Hart Trophy voting last season after leading the Rangers in scoring with 120 points (49 G, 71 A) in 82 games. The team also lost top-four defenseman Ryan Lindgren to an upper-body injury, likely sustained in his fight with Islanders defender Scott Mayfield after the latter laid a knee-on-knee hit on Rangers center Filip Chytil. Chytil, who played just 10 games last season due to concussion symptoms, was able to return.
  • Many eyebrows were raised when the Senators signed 38-year-old winger Nikolai Kulemin to a professional tryout a few weeks ago. After all, he hasn’t played in the NHL since the 2017-18 season and spent the past six years as a serviceable but non-dominant force in the Kontinental Hockey League. Kulemin recently told Chris Johnston of TSN and The Athletic that his son, Aleks Kulemin, will play U-16 hockey with the Toronto-area Don Mills Flyers this season and wasn’t ready to part with his family or his playing career, leading him to once again pursue opportunities in North America, preferably north of the border.

NHL Announces 2023-24 All-Star Teams

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The NHL announced their annual season-ending All-Star teams as part of last night’s award festivities. The rosters, as voted on by members of the Professional Hockey Writers’ Association, are as follows.

First All-Star Team

LW: Artemi Panarin (Rangers)
C: Nathan MacKinnon (Avalanche)
RW: Nikita Kucherov (Lightning)
D: Quinn Hughes (Canucks)
D: Roman Josi (Predators)
G: Connor Hellebuyck (Jets)

Second All-Star Team

LW: Filip Forsberg (Predators)
C: Connor McDavid (Oilers)
RW: David Pastrňák (Bruins)
D: Adam Fox (Rangers)
D: Cale Makar (Avalanche)
G: Thatcher Demko (Canucks)

The First Team nod caps off quite a successful 24 hours for MacKinnon, who also swept both media-voted and player-voted MVP honors with the Hart Trophy and Ted Lindsay Award. It’s his third All-Star nod, although his two prior ones were both Second Team honors in 2018 and 2020. The 28-year-old pivot led the Avs in scoring with 51 goals and 140 points this season and recorded a league-high 405 shots on goal.

Notably, the voting ledger (available in the league’s announcement) indicates Kucherov was the unanimous First Team selection at right wing. That’s the first time that’s happened since 2002, when the Flames’ Jarome Iginla was the across-the-board pick after also winning the Richard and Art Ross trophies. Like Iginla, Kucherov was crowned this year’s Art Ross winner after recording 144 points in 81 games. He tied with McDavid for a league-leading 100 assists, becoming the first winger in NHL history to hit the mark.

Absent from either team is Maple Leafs superstar Auston Matthews, whose 69 goals this season were the most of anyone since Mario Lemieux in 1995-96. He also fell short of being a Hart Trophy finalist behind Kucherov, MacKinnon and McDavid. He was third in All-Star voting among centers, though, and did receive nine First Team and 55 Second Team votes out of 187 ballots. The only other center to receive consideration was the Penguins’ Sidney Crosby, who only appeared on four ballots.

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.

Metropolitan Notes: Fox, Pesce, DeAngelo, Wahlstrom

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Rangers defenseman Adam Fox, who had missed practice recently for maintenance, skated today and indicated to reporters including USA Today’s Vince Z. Mercogliano (Twitter link) that he will be good to go for tomorrow’s series opener against Carolina.  The 26-year-old was a point-per-game player for the first time this season, collecting 17 goals and 56 assists in 72 games while logging a team-best 23:27 per game.  In the first round against Washington, Fox picked up a pair of helpers while averaging a little under 22 minutes a night which still led all New York defenders.

More from the Metropolitan:

  • While the Hurricanes are hopeful that defenseman Brett Pesce (lower body) will return at some point in the second round, it won’t be at the beginning of the series. Team reporter Walt Ruff relays (Twitter link) that the 29-year-old won’t be accompanying the team to New York and has been ruled out of the first two games of the series.  However, Tony DeAngelo, who took a slash to the arm in Carolina’s last game, has been cleared to play and should continue to suit up in Pesce’s absence.
  • Islanders winger Oliver Wahlstrom was non-committal about the prospect of returning next season, notes Ethan Sears of the New York Post. It was a rough year for the 23-year-old who struggled out of the gate as he worked his way back from offseason knee surgery.  Once he did get up to speed, he struggled, finding himself a frequent healthy scratch down the stretch; he didn’t play at all during the playoffs.  The end result saw Wahlstrom collect just two goals and four assists in 32 games.  A pending restricted free agent owed a $917.8K qualifying offer next month with arbitration rights, a change of scenery might be best for him but his trade value will be at a low point coming off the year he just had.

Metropolitan Notes: Haula, Fox, Rust

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New Jersey Devils reporter Amanda Stein tweeted today that forward Erik Haula did not practice with the team today after suffering an injury on Saturday night. Haula was forced to leave the Devils 7-2 win over the Buffalo Sabres with an undisclosed ailment. The 32-year-old did not join the team on the bench for the third period leading to speculation about what might have happened to the native of Pori, Finland.

Haula has found a home in New Jersey after bouncing around to four different teams between 2019-2022. In 18 games this year Haula has six goals and six assists which is well above his average point production per game. His hot start can be credited to a shooting percentage of 17.1% which is well above his career average of 12%.

Star-Ledger reporter Ryan Novozinsky tweeted that Devils head coach Lindy Ruff told reporters that Haula probably won’t be available for the team’s game tomorrow night which would be another blow to a Devils team who have already sustained injuries to much of their forward group, including Timo Meier and Tomas Nosek who were also absent from practice this morning as they continue to deal with ongoing ailments.

In other Metropolitan notes:

  • Mollie Walker of the New York Post is reporting that New York Rangers defenseman Adam Fox was an active participant in the team’s practice this morning and is eligible to return to the Rangers lineup on Wednesday night when they take on the Detroit Red Wings. The native of Jericho, New York was placed on the injured reserve after suffering an injury on November 3rd when he was hit by Carolina Hurricanes forward Sebastian Aho. Fox had been on a torrid pace to start the season with three goals and eight assists in the first 10 games of the Rangers season. The 2021 Norris Trophy winner will add a jolt to a Rangers team that sits tied for first in the league with a 15-3-1 record to start the season.
  • Matt Vensel of Post-Gazette Sports is reporting that Pittsburgh Penguins forward Bryan Rust was a full participant in Penguins practice this morning and he attempts to work his way back into the lineup after missing the team’s last three games with a lower-body injury. Rust practiced on the team’s top line along with Sidney Crosby and Jake Guentzel and took reps of the Penguins’ first power play unit signalling that a return could come sooner than later. Shelly Anderson of Pittsburgh Hockey Now is reporting that Rust told reporters that he could play tomorrow night when Pittsburgh visits the Nashville Predators, but nothing is official yet. The Penguins could certainly use Rust back as they’ve had Drew O’Connor filling in during his absence. O’Connor did have an assist in Saturday night’s win over the Toronto Maple Leafs, but he lacks the offensive upside that Rust brings to the Penguins top-6 forward group.

Metro Injury Notes: Capitals, Fox, Chytil, Shesterkin

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The Washington Capitals got off to a slow start under rookie head coach Spencer Carbery, but more recently they have begun to turn things around. They are currently right in the thick of a hotly contested Metropolitan Division, and they have as much of a chance to return to the playoffs after last year’s miss as any team. One of the major things that has hurt the Capitals this season has been injuries, although the team could be getting good news on that front soon.

GM Brian MacLellan told team reporter Tarik El-Bashir that defenseman Joel Edmundson and forward Nic Dowd are nearing a return from injury, and the hope is that both can return to team practice later this week. Edmundson has yet to make his debut for the Capitals, who acquired him for third and seventh-round picks this summer, but he would likely take Alexander Alexeyev’s spot on the left side of the Washington defense. Dowd, 33, is a veteran fourth-liner who has played for the Capitals since 2018-19. His return would likely allow the team to return its current fourth-line center, Hendrix Lapierre, back to the AHL, a move that might better suit his development.

Some more injury notes from the Metro:

  • The New York Post’s Mollie Walker relays word from New York Rangers head coach Peter Laviolette that Adam Fox and Filip Chytil are both progressing from their injuries, but have not returned to skating yet. That means any return to game action is still a ways off, though it is encouraging that Laviolette appears to expect both to return to the Rangers without any massive absence. With Fox on LTIR after a nasty collision against the Hurricanes, there was some worry in the New York market that their top defenseman’s season was in question. Now, based on Laviolette’s comments, it appears Fox’s season is not in danger.
  • Walker also delivered an update on Rangers star netminder Igor Shesterkin, who is out with an injury of his own. Walker reports that Shesterkin skated this morning, although he’s not quite ready to return to full game action. As a result, Jonathan Quick will start for the Rangers tonight against the Detroit Red Wings, while veteran Louis Domingue will serve as the backup.

New York Rangers Place Adam Fox On LTIR, Filip Chytil On IR

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In unfortunate news for the New York Rangers, Vince Z. Mercogliano of USA Today is reporting the team will place defenseman Adam Fox on long-term injured reserve. In a follow-up note, Mercogliano also relays the team is also expected to place forward Filip Chytil on injured reserve, meaning he will be out for at least the next week.

After colliding with Sebastian Aho in last night’s win against the Carolina Hurricanes, the expectation is that Fox will miss the next two to four weeks with a lower-body injury. It is a massive blow to a rolling Rangers team, who have won their last six games and sit at the top of the Metropolitan Division.

Fox continues to score at a rapid pace, scoring three goals and eight assists in the team’s first 10 games, averaging just over 21 minutes of ice time per night. With nine of those points coming on the powerplay, he is one of the primary reasons the team’s powerplay is humming at a solid 32.43% success rate to start the year.

The team does have other defensemen they can lean on for the time being, such as K’Andre Miller, who has provided the team with one goal and six assists through the first 10 games, but no other defenseman on the roster truly offers what Fox is able to bring to the team. One of the best offensive contributors in the league on the blue line, New York will have to go the next couple of weeks without one of their most important players.

Chytil, on the other hand, is also another important piece to have missing, but it will likely only be for the next three games. Sitting sixth on the team in scoring so far, Chytil has six assists on the year, without yet scoring a goal. In the meantime, due to their depth at the center position, Chytil’s spot in the lineup will likely be filled by Vincent Trocheck between Artemi Panarin and Alexis Lafreniere.

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