Rangers Reassign Connor Mackey
1/17: The Rangers reassigned Mackey to the minor leagues after he served as a healthy scratch in Saturday’s win over the Philadelphia Flyers.
1/16: According to a team announcement, the New York Rangers have recalled defenseman Connor Mackey from the AHL’s Hartford Wolf Pack. The reasoning behind Mackey’s recall is that defenseman Carson Soucy will miss tomorrow’s game against the Philadelphia Flyers due to personal reasons.
Today’s transaction makes the fourth recall of the year for Mackey. The 29-year-old defenseman is in his third year with the organization and in the final year of a two-year, $1.55MM contract.
Despite being recalled on multiple occasions, Mackey has yet to play for the Rangers this season. Up to this point, since the beginning of the 2023-24 campaign, Mackey has gone scoreless in three games with New York, averaging 16:14 of ice time per game. The Rangers have six other healthy defensemen on the roster, so Mackey isn’t expected to add to those totals.
He has spent most of his time with the organization playing with AHL Hartford. Providing quality hard-nosed two-way play, Mackey has scored 10 goals and 42 points in 142 games with the Wolf Pack, accruing 238 PIMs in the process.
Meanwhile, Soucy will miss his fifth game this season. The 31-year-old blue liner has appeared in 44 games with New York this season, scoring three goals and eight points while averaging 17:18 of ice time. He has provided quality play on the defensive side of the puck, averaging a 93.5% on-ice SV% at even strength.
There is an indication that Soucy is in his final few weeks with the Rangers. Earlier today, General Manager Chris Drury penned a letter to fans, indicating that the team would punt on the 2025-26 campaign to retool for the future success of the franchise. Being a pending unrestricted free agent, Soucy would be an ideal trade candidate leading up to the deadline, should New York find any suitors for his services.
Rangers Recall Scott Morrow
The Rangers announced they’ve recalled defenseman Scott Morrow from AHL Hartford. Fellow rearguard Connor Mackey was sent back to Hartford in the corresponding move.
Mackey was recalled just yesterday to serve as a healthy extra after Juuso Pärssinen was sent down following his waiver clearance. The Rangers likely wanted to recall Morrow instead. However, starting this season, players must play at least one game on an AHL assignment before they’re eligible for another recall. Morrow hadn’t played since being sent down to the Wolf Pack on Monday, so they were unable to add him back to the roster. He suited up for Hartford last night, though, so he can come up today.
The Blueshirts have been in need of an extra defenseman since William Borgen left their game against the Golden Knights on Nov. 18 with an upper-body injury. He’s been out for four games and is now on injured reserve. He was a game-time decision yesterday against the Hurricanes, but adding Morrow back to the roster today suggests they don’t expect Borgen to be available for tomorrow’s matinee against the Bruins.
Morrow, 23, hasn’t had a great start to his tenure in the Rangers organization. A 2021 second-round pick, he was acquired from Carolina in last season’s K’Andre Miller deal and immediately slotted in as their most dynamic defense prospect. He ranked No. 2 overall in the system in NHL.com’s preseason rankings. After failing to make the opening night roster, though, he’s been limited to just three points in 12 games with Hartford and has a -6 rating, third-worst on the team.
The Connecticut native has made three appearances for the Rangers this season, in spot duty as injuries necessitated. He’s still looking for his first point as a Blueshirt and has a -2 rating while averaging 13:11 of ice time per game. He’s managed eight shot attempts and three blocks, but doesn’t have a hit. The Rangers have been out-attempted 50-36 in Morrow’s 5-on-5 minutes for a CF% of 41.9.
Rangers Recall Connor Mackey, Reassign Juuso Pärssinen
The New York Rangers have reassigned forward Juuso Pärssinen after he cleared waivers from Tuesday. With the available roster spot, the Rangers have recalled defenseman Connor Mackey, with two games left on their current road-trip. Mackey has recorded 11 shots on goal, his first point, and his first fight of the season in his last four games with the AHL’s Hartford Wolf Pack.
New York has rotated extra defenders for much of the season. Mackey has already spent 10 days on the NHL roster, across two call-ups. He’s alternated with Scott Morrow, who played in his first four games of the NHL season last week. Mackey could get his first NHL game of the season in a road game against Carolina or Boston, should New York want an alternative to Matthew Robertson, who has one goal and a minus-seven through 15 games this season.
Mackey has played in three games with the Rangers over the last two seasons. He has no scoring and two fights with New York, but did rack up eight points and 50 penalty minutes in 33 NHL games split between the Calgary Flames and Arizona Coyotes between 2021 and 2023. He joined the Hartford Wolf Pack after the 2022-23 season ended, and has since racked up 38 points and 193 penalty minutes in 125 AHL games.
Meanwhile, Pärssinen will head to the minors after a quiet stretch with the Rangers. He hasn’t made it onto the scoresheet – with a point or a penalty – in nine games. He only has three points and two penalty minutes in 14 games this season. New York acquired Pärssinen alongside Calvin de Haan and two draft picks in a deal that sent Ryan Lindgren to the Colorado Avalanche at last year’s Trade Deadline. This move will set Pärssinen up to play his first AHL games since the 2023-24 season, when he racked up 34 points in 50 games with the Colorado Eagles between the regular-and-post-season.
Rangers Place Matt Rempe On IR, Send Connor Mackey To AHL
Nov. 8: The Rangers announced that Mackey has been sent back down to Hartford. He didn’t see any game action while on recall. They now have one open roster slot.
Nov. 3: The New York Rangers have recalled defenseman Connor Mackey from the AHL’s Hartford Wolf Pack. They have also placed enforcer Matt Rempe on injured reserve, per the NHL media site. Rempe is expected to be out long-term after sustaining an injury in a fight with San Jose Sharks bruiser Ryan Reaves.
Mackey has bounced between the NHL and AHL lineups this season, but has still found his way into all nine of Hartford’s games so far. He’s posted two assists, one penalty, and a minus-five in those appearances, and also serves as one of four alternate captains. Despite the routine call-ups to the Rangers roster, Mackey hasn’t appeared in the NHL since December 2024, when he appeared in two games and recorded no points and one fight. He’s played just three NHL games since 2023, and 42 across a five-year career. He’s posted 11 points, 80 penalty minutes, and a minus-one in the NHL.
Mackey will serve as an insurance option for New York’s extra defenseman Urho Vaakanainen, who is day-to-day with a lower-body injury per Stephen Whyno of AP News. Vaakanainen has played in 10 games and recorded one assist, eight penalty minutes, and a plus-one this season. He is expected to be replaced in the lineup by fellow left-shot defenseman Matthew Robertson, who has one goal in seven NHL games this season.
To make room for Mackey’s recall, the Rangers will now move Rempe to the inactives list. The 6-foot-9 bruiser managed one goal, seven penalty minutes, and a plus-one in nine games before going down with injury. He looked noticeably more impactful when play was moving this season, taking a stride towards impact that helped round out his enforcer presence. New York has turned towards Jonny Brodzinski to fill Rempe’s fourth-line role. Brodzinski has two points in five games this season.
Rangers Reassign Connor Mackey
The Rangers announced that defenseman Connor Mackey was assigned to AHL Hartford. They’re left with an open roster spot for now.
There are multiple potential motivations for the demotion. Mackey was recalled last weekend to serve as a healthy extra in conjunction with Carson Soucy landing on injured reserve. Soucy is eligible to come off IR tomorrow after sustaining his upper-body injury last Saturday, Oct. 11. He hasn’t skated since then, though, so a return this weekend seems unlikely. The Blueshirts were also carrying eight defensemen on the active roster entering today. They recalled top prospect Scott Morrow on Wednesday amid an injury concern for William Borgen, but Borgen ended up being able to go for yesterday’s overtime loss to the Maple Leafs.
Hartford is also light on its blue line, with the Mackey and Morrow recalls leaving them with just three NHL-contracted defensemen on their roster. Sending Mackey back gives them a fourth and a stable veteran presence as their schedule ramps up.
Notably, the waiver-exempt Morrow stays up for now. That could change when Soucy is ready to return, but reassigning Mackey over Morrow indicates the Rangers may look to get the latter into his season debut sooner rather than later. They’re still ironing out some question marks on their blue line. It’s hard to justify taking rookie Matthew Robertson out of the lineup – after starting the year as New York’s No. 7, he’s been elevated into top-four duties with Borgen with Soucy out. That pairing has dominated to the tune of a 70.4 xGF% and 53.5 CF% at 5v5, per MoneyPuck. While dressing Morrow would give them four righties and two lefties, they may be mulling a benching for Urho Vaakanainen, who’s been a non-factor on the scoresheet through six games.
Mackey, 29, is in his third season with the organization. This recall didn’t result in any playing time, but he did log one appearance for the Blueshirts in 2023-24 and two in 2024-25. The 6’3″ lefty is a pending UFA on a two-way deal and has recorded an 8-27–35 scoring line with a +12 rating in 111 games for Hartford over the past three years.
Mackey does not need waivers for today’s demotion because he’s played fewer than 10 NHL games and spent less than 30 days on the active roster since he last cleared them. This recall lasted five days, so he’s got 25 left on his clock before he needs to hit the wire again to return to Hartford.
Rangers Recall Connor Mackey, Place Carson Soucy On IR
The New York Rangers have placed defenseman Carson Soucy on injured reserve and recalled Connor Mackey in his place, per the NHL media site and Peter Baugh of The Athletic. Soucy had a scary collision with Pittsburgh Penguins winger Rickard Rakell in New York’s Saturday night win. The hit swept Soucy’s legs from under him as his head fell into the boards. He left the game immediately, ending his night with just over six minutes of ice time.
No details about Soucy’s injury have been revealed, though a move to IR will force him out for at least two weeks with an, assumed, upper-body injury. He played solid, second-pair minutes for the Rangers in two games prior to injury. He recorded one goal and a plus-two in those outings – both stats coming in New York’s Thursday win over the Buffalo Sabres.
Soucy is in the final year of a three-year, $9.75MM contract originally signed with the Vancouver Canucks in 2023. He spent the first two years of the deal primarily with the Canucks, racking up 16 points and a minus-three in 99 games played. Those poor totals led Vancouver to trade Soucy to New York at the 2025 NHL Trade Deadline, in exchange for a 2025 third-round pick used to draft Kieren Dervin from St. Andrew’s College.
Soucy’s absence will leave a notable hole on the Rangers’ blue-line. Mackey will earn the first nod of the season, after playing in only two NHL games, and recording one fight, last season. The rest of his year was spent with the AHL’s Hartford Wolf Pack, where he racked up 24 points and 102 penalty minutes in 66 games played. Mackey has found his groove as a hard-hitting defenseman. He has racked up 267 penalty minutes in 163 AHL games over his last three seasons in the league. Those years weren’t consecutive, though, as Mackey spent the 2022-23 season in an extra defender role with the Calgary Flames and Arizona Coyotes. He recorded seven points and 48 PIMs in 30 NHL games that year.
New York is likely to elevate Urho Vaakanainen into Soucy’s role on the second-pair. Behind him will be young defender Matthew Robertson, who hasn’t yet made his season debut. This injury could be an opportunity for Robertson to finally cement his role in the NHL, after earning a top-50 selection in the 2019 NHL Draft but not yet playing more than two games in the NHL. He managed 25 points and 55 penalty minutes in 60 AHL games last season. Should either Vaakanainen or Robertson falter, or New York need a spark, Mackey could make a spot start.
A tight salary cap situation puts New York in a spot where they can only afford to recall Mackey, who makes a league-minimum $775K salary, but could not afford to recall top prospect Scott Morrow, who makes a $917K salary.
Waivers: 9/30/25
The final day of September has once again brought a flurry of waiver activity. After 22 players were placed on waivers on Monday, all of whom cleared, per Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman, another 22 players are on the wire today, per PuckPedia. They are as follows:
Calgary Flames
F Clark Bishop
F Dryden Hunt
D Yan Kuznetsov
F Sam Morton
Carolina Hurricanes
D Gavin Bayreuther
F Noel Gunler
F Tyson Jost
F Josiah Slavin
F Ryan Suzuki
Edmonton Oilers
New York Islanders
G Marcus Hogberg
F Matthew Highmore
New York Rangers
F Brendan Brisson
D Connor Mackey
Philadelphia Flyers
San Jose Sharks
F Shane Bowers
F Jimmy Huntington
F Oskar Olausson
F Pavol Regenda
G Jakub Skarek
Winnipeg Jets
D Tyrel Bauer
D Isaak Phillips
Some younger forwards stand out on today’s list. Olausson, Brisson and Suzuki were late first-round selections back in 2021, 2020, and 2019, respectively, but haven’t been able to grab a foothold on a full-time NHL roster spot just yet. Meanwhile, Gunler is only 23 and since he has spent a lot of his time since being drafted playing overseas, he’s still relatively inexperienced in North America with just 100 AHL games under his belt.
Among the blueliners, Phillips has seen NHL action in four straight seasons, all with Chicago, including a 33-game stint in 2023-24. Mackey was recalled and sent down many times on paper moves last season and has gotten into at least one NHL appearance in five straight years. Bayreuther is the most experienced of them all with 122 NHL outings but none since 2023-24.
With the belief that a few teams might be eyeing the goalie market, there are a trio of options available. Hogberg is the most experienced of the three with 57 NHL outings, including 15 last season. Skarek (two games in 2024-25) and Tomkins (six in 2023-24) joined new teams in free agency this summer and don’t appear likely to be claimed.
These players will be on waivers until 1:00 PM CT on Wednesday.
Rangers Recall Dylan Garand And Connor Mackey
December 9th, 9:18 AM: The New York Rangers have assigned Garand back to the Hartford Wolf Pack of the AHL, signalling that Shesterkin will return to the lineup tonight.
December 8th, 9:49 AM: The New York Rangers announced that they’ve recalled goaltender Dylan Garand and defenseman Connor Mackey from the Hartford Wolf Pack of the American Hockey League. The 22-year-old Garand has been called up likely as a backup option for Jonathan Quick as Igor Shesterkin’s wife is in labor, and he is expected to miss the game. Garand has been terrific in Hartford this season, posting a .917 save percentage to go along with a 2.42 goals-against average. He posted his first shutout of the season on Friday night against the Rockford IceHogs and has a record of 7-2-2 on the season.
A 2020 fourth-round pick, Garand is on the smaller side, but his confidence appears to be growing as the season progresses and he is beginning to show a ton of upside.
Mackey has dressed in 22 games with the Wolf Pack this year and has tallied two goals and four assists with a +2 plus/minus rating. The 28-year-old has been a staple in the AHL during his professional career, dressing in 146 career games and registering 12 goals and 57 assists. The Tower Lakes, Illinois native is no stranger to the NHL, having dressed in 40 career NHL games with three different teams. Mackey has posted four goals and seven assists for 11 career NHL points.
It is expected that Mackey will serve as the Rangers’ seventh defenseman (as per Colin Stephenson of Newsday Sports).
Waiver Wire: 10/5/24
With season-opening rosters due in just over 48 hours, it’s going to be a busy weekend on the waiver front across the NHL. A total of 14 players are on waivers today. The players below were first reported by Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman (Twitter link) unless otherwise specified. Meanwhile, Friedman relays (Twitter link) that of the 25 players on the wire yesterday, all cleared aside from John Ludvig who was claimed by Colorado.
Anaheim Ducks
Colorado Avalanche
Dallas Stars
D Kyle Capobianco
G Magnus Hellberg
F Cameron Hughes
F Kole Lind
D Alexander Petrovic
F Emilio Pettersen
Florida Panthers
Minnesota Wild (per team release)
New York Rangers
Seattle Kraken (per team announcement)
These players will be on waivers until 1:00 PM CT on Sunday.
Rangers Recall 13 Players
With the Rangers seeing their AHL team eliminated in the Atlantic Division Finals earlier this week, they were free to recall some players to the big club to serve as their ‘Black Aces’ squad. After taking a few days, they’ve made their choices on who to bring up. AHL Hartford announced that the Rangers have promoted goaltender Dylan Garand, defensemen Ben Harpur, Connor Mackey, Victor Mancini, Matthew Robertson, and Brandon Scanlin, and forwards Alex Belzile, Brett Berard, Anton Blidh, Jake Leschyshyn, Brennan Othmann, Tyler Pitlick, and Adam Sykora from the Wolf Pack.
Garand was briefly up with the Rangers earlier in the playoffs when third-stringer Louis Domingue was unavailable but didn’t see any game action. The 21-year-old didn’t have a particularly strong regular season with a 3.03 GAA and a .898 SV% in 39 regular season games but was quite sharp in the playoffs, improving those numbers to 2.59 and .922 respectively in nine appearances.
Among the blueliners, only Mackey and Scanlin saw action with the Rangers during the regular season, getting into one game apiece; one of them would likely be the first from this group to get the call to play if necessary. Harpur has the most experience with 198 career appearances (including 42 with New York in 2022-23) but missed most of the season due to injury which likely takes him off the table. Mancini, meanwhile, is eligible to practice but not play as his entry-level contract doesn’t officially begin until next season.
As for the forwards, all but Belzile, Berard, and Sykora got into at least one NHL contest in 2023-24. Pitlick led the way on that front with 34 appearances but was limited to just a goal and three assists while averaging a little over 10 minutes a night. That said, he’d be the safest player to put in the lineup if necessary given his familiarity. Othmann is one of their top prospects and had a strong year in Hartford with 49 points in 67 games. While it would be riskier to put him in, his style of play fits in with the physicality of the postseason while Othmann could provide some potential offensive upside if Peter Laviolette has to shake things up.