Metropolitan Notes: Aitcheson, Rangers, Blue Jackets
New York Islanders top prospect Kashawn Aitcheson took home OHL Defenseman of the Year honors, shared by the league today. The 19-year-old joins fellow Barrie Colts Aaron Ekblad (2014) and Erik Reitz (2002) to earn the distinguished award.
Aitcheson has yet to make his professional debut, but he’s looking like a fantastic selection at 17th overall in last year’s draft. As part of their first round haul which brought Matthew Schaefer and Victor Eklund, the class has transformed New York’s outlook on the future.
Chosen with the pick acquired as part of the Noah Dobson trade to Montreal, Aitcheson took another step in the right direction with 70 points in 56 games. OHL scoring numbers sometimes not painting the whole picture, the lefty is a true #1 defenseman, standing out on both ends and showcasing a physical edge as a complete package.
The Toronto native inked his entry-level deal last month, but will have to wait to enter the professional circuit. New York’s AHL affiliate in Bridgeport would have loved to infuse their lineup with the lefty, but he is not eligible, turning 20 this summer. Even then, the 6’2” prospect has all the tools to jump right into the NHL next fall.
Elsewhere across the division:
- As the New York Rangers look to move on from a majorly disappointing 2025-26, questions were raised by Vince Z. Mergogliano of The Athletic on Matt Rempe and Adam Edstrom’s future with the team. Currently with a logjam in their bottom six, the emergence of Jaroslav Chmelar and Adam Sykora could push out Rempe and/or Edstrom, neither of which have waiver eligibility remaining. Edstrom, 25, had an injury riddled campaign where he recorded just five points in 35 games. At 6’7”, he could benefit from a fresh start after three years with the Rangers and limited production. Meanwhile, Rempe’s stats are no real improvement, but the 6’9” winger could have a trade market this summer thanks to his age (23) and mean streak, an asset to any young team with playoff aspirations. San Jose, for example, stands out as a club who values such a role, and could be looking for a Ryan Reaves replacement. Similar to enforcer trades in the past, Rempe could fetch a meaningful return for New York.
- The Columbus Blue Jackets might form a succession plan behind the bench with Trent Vogelhuber, written by The Athletic’s Aaron Portzline. After cleaning house last week, head coach Rick Bowness will assemble his own staff. The 71-year-old, who got started in the NHL with the first iteration of the Winnipeg Jets back in the 1980s, earned the opportunity to stick around in Ohio but still is not a long-term solution on age alone. Instead he figures to be more of a “culture changer”, fully evident by such harsh comments on his team closing the season. With this in mind, Portzline reports that Vogelhuber, head coach of the Cleveland Monsters, could make the jump to assistant on Bowness’ staff on his way to taking over in the future. Just 37, Vogelhuber is a native of Dublin, Ohio, and a former draft pick by the team (211th overall, 2007). Joining the Monsters in 2018 as an assistant, Vogelhuber has quickly risen up the ranks, becoming head coach in 2022 where he’s led the Monsters to another playoff berth in 2025-26. Whatever the case, with 12 head coaches in their 26 years of existence, Columbus would benefit from stability of a young home-grown coach.
Rangers’ Matt Rempe Will Undergo Thumb Procedure, Placed On IR
New York Rangers head coach Mike Sullivan will have to make some lineup changes when he returns from Team USA’s run at the Winter Olympics. The Rangers announced that enforcer Matt Rempe will undergo another procedure to fix the thumb injury that held him out of 24 games earlier in the season, per the New York Post’s Mollie Walker. Rempe has been placed on injured reserve while he recovers from the procedure. He will be eligible to return on February 27th, the day after New York’s first game back from the Olympic break.
Rempe sustained his injury in a fight with San Jose Sharks winger Ryan Reaves in late October. He stayed out of the lineup until mid-December, then rotated into games through the start of the Olympic break. Rempe has totaled one goal, a minus-four, and 11 penalty minutes in 26 games this season. He has also thrown 86 hits, giving him the highest per-game average on the team.
The NHL’s tallest player has stuck to his fourth-line role in the Rangers lineup this season – though with a bit more poise than normal. Rempe went 12 games without a penalty after returning from his injury in December. He followed that with back-to-back games with a penalty but avoided the penalty box in his last three games. A part of that discipline is surely Rempe’s inability to fight while he nurses an injured thumb. He has only two fights this season, after recording six last season. His health will continue to be assessed as New York kicks back into gear for the season’s final sprint.
Latest On Matt Rempe, Mika Zibanejad
The New York Rangers activated forward Matt Rempe off of long-term injured reserve today, according to the New York Post’s Mollie Walker. Per Walker, head coach Mike Sullivan said that Rempe would be a game-time decision for the team’s game tonight against the Anaheim Ducks.
Rempe has been out since Oct. 23 with an upper-body injury, one he suffered during an early-season contest against the San Jose Sharks. The 23-year-old has missed 18 straight games due to the injury.
Rempe had one goal for one point through nine games played in 2025-26 before his injury, and was playing a limited role. Sullivan had been deploying Rempe as a fourth-line grinder, giving him just under 10 minutes of ice time per game. Rempe also got a look as a net-front player on the Rangers’ second power play unit, but was taken off and did not receive any power play time in the final three games he played before his injury.
Getting Rempe back from injured reserve will provide the Rangers with an added level of physicality for their bottom-six. While Jaroslav Chmelar is big and physical as well, few in the NHL are as physically imposing as Rempe, who stands 6’9″, 261 pounds. Rempe is under contract through the end of next season at a one-way, $975K rate, and will be an RFA with arbitration rights once his deal expires, unless the team elects to extend him before that point.
Shifting gears to a Rangers forward with significantly more experience and a significantly higher cap hit, Mika Zibanejad will not play tonight against the Ducks as he missed a team meeting, and will therefore be a healthy scratch. (per The Athletic’s Vince Z. Mercogliano) While Sullivan did acknowledge that “there are logistical challenges the city presents” that contributed to Zibanejad’s mistake, he emphasized the importance of maintaining team rules.
Zibanejad, 32, is one of the Rangers’ key veteran players. With nearly 1,000 games played to his name, Zibanejad has been a steady top-six center with sporadic periods of star-level play in New York. While his production and overall impact isn’t quite where it was during his peak as a Ranger, Zibanejad still has 25 points in 33 games this season.
Without Zibanejad tonight, the Rangers will shift J.T. Miller back to the center position. Miller played right wing during the team’s overtime victory against the Montreal Canadiens on Saturday night.
East Notes: Tkachuk, Eller, Rempe, Dowd
The Senators haven’t had captain Brady Tkachuk available for most of the season as he has missed the last 16 games with a thumb injury. The team has fared relatively well in his absence, compiling an 8-4-4 record without him but it’s fair to say that they’re still missing their captain. The good news for the Sens is that he might not be out much longer. On his latest Wingmen podcast (audio link), Tkachuk indicated that he’s hoping to return around Thanksgiving. When he underwent surgery in mid-October, the recovery timeline was six to seven weeks so returning next week would fall within that range. Tkachuk had 55 points in 72 games last season and assuming there are no late setbacks, he’ll soon give a big boost to an Ottawa attack that enters the night around the middle of the pack offensively, sitting 13th in goals scored.
Elsewhere in the East:
- Still with the Senators, center Lars Eller won’t play on Thursday due to an undisclosed injury, notes Postmedia’s Bruce Garrioch (Twitter link). The 36-year-old has been a regular in Ottawa’s bottom six this season, picking up two goals and four assists in 19 games while logging a little more than 13 minutes a game of playing time. There’s no word yet on how long he might be out for.
- Rangers winger Matt Rempe has resumed skating as he works his way back from an upper-body injury, mentions Mollie Walker of the New York Post (Twitter link). Head coach Mike Sullivan noted that while there’s no timetable for his return, he’s up to skating three days on, one day off which is a promising sign. Rempe has a goal, nine penalty minutes, and 30 hits in nine outings so far this season while getting a bit more ice time under Sullivan, logging nearly 10 minutes a night.
- Capitals center Nic Dowd missed tonight’s game against Edmonton due to an upper-body injury, relays NHL.com’s Tom Gulitti (Twitter link). The 35-year-old is in the first season of a two-year, $6MM deal but has struggled offensively. After notching double-digit goals in each of the last five years, Dowd has just one through his first 19 outings. Bailey Johnson of The Washington Post adds (Twitter link) that the middleman won’t accompany the team to Montreal for their game on Thursday and will be evaluated further.
Rangers Activate Vincent Trocheck
11:43 a.m.: Trocheck has been formally activated from LTIR, and Rempe has been shifted there in the corresponding move, per Mollie Walker of the New York Post.
9:51 a.m.: Rangers center Vincent Trocheck is expected to come off long-term injured reserve and return to New York’s top six when they face the Predators tonight, according to this morning’s line rushes (via Vince Z. Mercogliano of The Athletic). The Blueshirts are currently using about $100,000 of Trocheck’s $3.768MM LTIR pool after recalling top prospect Gabriel Perreault yesterday, so they’ll need to make a corresponding transaction. That could easily mean shifting Matt Rempe from IR to LTIR, since he has already missed 18 days and seven games of the 24 and 10 required, and he remains out indefinitely.
Rempe notwithstanding, Trocheck’s activation gives the Rangers a healthy forward group for the first time since their second game of the season. Trocheck left that contest against the Sabres early and was quickly labeled week-to-week.
His absence was essentially a death knell for the Rangers, whose limited bottom-six scoring depth made it imperative that their first and second lines operated at maximum capacity. He’d started the first game-and-a-half as their top-line center between Alexis Lafrenière and Artemi Panarin, a role filled by Mika Zibanejad shifting back to center after starting the year on the wing. That domino effect led to training camp tryout success story Conor Sheary being immediately overtaxed in second-line duties alongside J.T. Miller and William Cuylle.
The results have been disastrous. The Rangers have been shut out five times in seven home games and are scoring just 2.19 per game overall, second-worst in the league ahead of only the Flames. Only Panarin has produced at more than a 41-point pace with 10 in 16 appearances. They’re hoping a new-look offense, fueled by Trocheck and Perreault’s season debut, can help reverse that trend starting tonight.
Trocheck will reprise his role between Panarin and Lafrenière. At the same time, Perreault bumps Sheary back down to the bottom six, according to Mercogliano – the latter slots in on the left wing with Zibanejad and Miller.
Only now will Trocheck get his season started in earnest. He’s looking for a rebound after a semi-underwhelming offensive showing in 2025-26. He finished top 20 in Selke Trophy voting for the second year in a row, but his 59 points in 82 games were his lowest total since signing his seven-year, $39.375MM contract with the Rangers in free agency in 2022.
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’ Matt Rempe Out Long-Term, Vincent Trocheck Nearing Return
New York Rangers enforcer Matt Rempe is going to be out “longer-term” after sustaining an upper-body injury in a fight with San Jose Sharks’ winger Ryan Reaves, head coach Mike Sullivan told Vince Mercogliano of The Athletic. Mercogliano later specified that Rempe’s injury isn’t expected to be season-ending, but could span multiple weeks, if not a few months.
Rempe was filling slightly larger shoes than last season through New York’s first nine games. He notched one goal and seven penalty minutes, while averaging a career-high 9:48 in ice time each game. He also recorded 30 hits – putting him on pace to register over 220 hits across a full 82 games.
New York awarded top prospect Brennan Othmann with his season debut in Rempe’s absence. He recorded no points and a minus-one in the outing, and now could be headed for a healthy scratch in favor of Jonny Brodzinski, per Mercogliano. Brodzinski has already played in two games this season, with no scoring and one shot on net.
The Rangers shouldn’t have to spar between depth wingers for too much longer. Top-six centerman Vincent Trocheck returned to skating on Monday, marking a big step in his return from an upper-body injury sustained on October 9th. Trocheck was placed on long-term injured reserve on October 11th, and won’t be eligible to be activated until November 1st. The injury ended an ironman streak that spanned the last three seasons (and all but one game of 2021-22). Trocheck spent all three years of that streak with New York, racking up 200 points in 246 games over the stretch. That’s the fourth-most of any Ranger since 2022. He even managed a career-year in that mix, posting a career-best 77 points in the 2023-24 season.
Trocheck should return to his second-line center role as soon as he’s back from injury. He began the year between wingers Artemi Panarin and Alexis Lafrenière, though New York has since broken up that duo in favor of icing Panarin with captain J.T. Miller. No matter who he’s centering, Trocheck should find a quick path back to high-impact minutes within the coming weeks.
Metro Notes: Hurricanes, Rempe, Trocheck
The Carolina Hurricanes issued several injury updates yesterday, via team reporter Walt Ruff. Head coach Rod Brind’Amour indicated that injured defenseman K’Andre Miller is considered “more day-to-day” than out long-term, while injured forwards Eric Robinson and William Carrier “won’t be coming back anytime soon.” Miller and Carrier are managing lower-body injuries, while Robinson is dealing with an upper-body ailment. Miller last played Oct. 20 against the Vegas Golden Knights, while both Carrier and Robinson last played Oct. 23.
The Hurricanes have gotten off to an exceptional start to their 2025-26 campaign, but these injuries threaten their significant positive momentum. Carolina dropped yesterday’s contest against the Stars by a 3-2 score. The loss of the aforementioned trio of players, combined with other injuries to Shayne Gostisbehere, Jaccob Slavin, and Pyotr Kochetkov, has tested Carolina’s depth to an extreme degree very early into this season. As a result of these absences, the Hurricanes have been forced to rely on players with little NHL experience to fill roles in their lineup: call-ups Joel Nystrom, Bradly Nadeau, and Charles-Alexis Legault had just three games of NHL experience combined before the start of 2025-26.
Other notes from the Metropolitan Division:
- Injured New York Rangers pivot Vincent Trocheck isn’t a candidate to return any time soon, head coach Mike Sullivan told the media (including the New York Post’s Mollie Walker) yesterday. Trocheck remains on long-term injured reserve (LTIR) with an upper-body injury, isn’t skating yet, and Sullivan directly said his return to play “isn’t imminent.” The Rangers have shifted veteran Mika Zibanejad back to his natural center position in response to Trocheck’s absence, and Zibanejad has started to heat up, scoring two goals and four points in his last three games. For the Rangers to make a serious push to gain ground in the Metropolitan Division early this season, Zibanejad, 32, will need to continue to produce and prove that he can handle some of the responsibilities left behind by Trocheck.
- Physical forward Matt Rempe will not travel to his hometown of Calgary for the Rangers’ upcoming game as he is still being evaluated for an upper-body injury, relays Newsday’s Colin Stephenson. Rempe appeared to suffer the injury in the process or aftermath of fighting Ryan Reaves during the Rangers’ Oct. 23 loss to the San Jose Sharks. The 6’9″, 261-pounder had played a steady fourth-line role in all of the Rangers’ nine games so far this season, and in response to his injury, the club called up 2021 first-rounder Brennan Othmann, who himself has been the subject of recent trade buzz.
Injury Notes: Rempe, Gudas, Leddy
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.
East Notes: Panarin, Rempe, Kulich
In today’s episode of 32 Thoughts, Elliotte Friedman discussed Artemi Panarin and his status with the Rangers. Somewhat quietly, amidst so much talk surrounding Connor McDavid, the 33-year-old Russian enters the final year of his seven-year, $77MM deal signed with the Blueshirts back in 2019. It is thought that the Rangers are looking for a discount for their star to stay in the Big Apple.
Once the highest-paid winger in the league, now surpassed by Mikko Rantanen and Mitch Marner, Friedman noted that earlier in the summer, the Rangers had early discussions with Panarin on potentially taking a more team-friendly deal, similar to Anze Kopitar, who inked a two-year contract with an AAV of $7MM in 2023.
Vince Mercogliano of The Athletic echoed Friedman’s thoughts, adding that the Rangers are in no rush with their star, only willing to move forward now if at a discount. Despite slightly regressing to 89 from his 120-point explosion in 2023-24, Panarin remains among the league’s elite and will have no shortage of suitors. With the Rangers already facing pressure to rebound from a disappointing 2024-25 campaign, perhaps extra emphasis will be placed on their ability to keep Panarin happy.
Other notes from the Eastern Conference:
- Staying in New York, Matt Rempe discussed his goal to become a more complete hockey player, as told by Colin Stephenson of Newsday. “I want to turn into not being known as an enforcer,’’ Rempe said. “I want to be turned into, ‘This guy’s a really good young power forward… who also can fight.’” The 23-year-old has made an impression on new Head Coach Mike Sullivan, with his work ethic and strong skating. Rempe last netted double-digit goals as a 19-year-old with the Seattle Thunderbirds of the WHL, and has not notched more than 12 points in a season as a pro, but at 6 foot 9, 265 pounds, the Calgary native is certainly an imposing netfront presence, and has the right mindset to stick around in today’s game.
- Meanwhile, in Buffalo, young center Jiri Kulich was noted as having left the ice a few minutes into morning skate on Thursday, and is sidelined for the Sabres’ preseason tilt with Detroit. Head Coach Lindy Ruff said it was a muscle tweak, and Kulich is not expected to be out for more than a few days.