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East Notes: Panarin, Rempe, Kulich

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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. 

Rangers, Matt Rempe Agree To Two-Year Deal

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10:12 a.m.: Rempe will earn a $775K base salary with a $200K signing bonus in 2025-26 and a $975K salary in 2026-27, according to PuckPedia. His qualifying offer upon expiry will be $1MM as a result.

9:17 a.m.: The Rangers have agreed to terms with pending RFA forward Matt Rempe on a two-year contract, Larry Brooks of the New York Post reports Wednesday. The total value is $1.95MM with a corresponding $975K AAV and cap hit, according to Peter Baugh of The Athletic. The team has since made the contract official.

It’s not surprising to see Rempe land a one-way commitment coming off his entry-level contract, nor is it surprising to see his second NHL deal remain in the six-figure range per season. A sixth-round pick in 2020, he debuted with the Rangers in February 2024 amid internal turnover on the club’s fourth line. Over the last year and change in New York, he’s produced four goals and six assists for 10 points in 59 games.

Rempe never has and never will be counted on for high-end point production. Instead, it’s his 6’9″, 255-lb frame and penchant for physicality that has led the Rangers to give him increasingly consistent deployment in limited minutes. His ceiling moving forward will be determined by how well he can effectively deploy his frame as a brutal forechecker instead of ineffective, penalizable hits. Rempe spent nearly as much time in the penalty box (71 minutes) as he did on the ice (95 minutes) in his initial 17-game trial in the NHL last season. He improved his penalty impacts somewhat here in 2024-25, only logging 67 PIMs in 42 appearances and 357 minutes of total ice time. However, he was still suspended for eight games in December for elbowing Stars defenseman Miro Heiskanen. It was the second suspension of his career after receiving a four-game ban in 2023-24.

Still, after bouncing between the Rangers and AHL Hartford for the first few months of the season, Rempe didn’t see another minor-league assignment for the rest of the year after being reinstated from his suspension in January. He’s eligible for waivers for the first time in 2025-26, so expect him to begin the season on the opening night roster and stay there for good unless an unforeseen roster crunch forces the Blueshirts into exposing him to the rest of the league. The Calgary native has 27 points in 114 minor-league games through his first three professional seasons.

Assuming no additional subtractions from their forward group via trade and prospects like Brett Berard, Brennan Othmann, and Gabriel Perreault starting 2025-26 on the opening night roster, New York has 12 forwards on their active roster for next year. That doesn’t include a new deal for pending RFA William Cuylle. The team has nearly $14MM in cap space remaining after the Rempe deal with Cuylle and defenseman K’Andre Miller still among their notable RFAs without new contracts, per PuckPedia.

Rangers’ Matt Rempe Out Week-To-Week

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The Rangers announced that forward Matt Rempe is out week-to-week due to an upper-body injury (via Larry Brooks of the New York Post). A corresponding recall is unlikely because Sam Carrick has rejoined the team after a brief personal leave, Brooks adds, giving the Blueshirts 13 healthy forwards. With less than a month to go in the season, the injury could end his campaign if New York doesn’t make the playoffs.

Rempe, 22, now carries an injury designation for the first time in his brief NHL career. Most of his unavailability over the past two years has been due to suspensions – first, a four-gamer for elbowing Devils defenseman Jonas Siegenthaler last year, then an eight-game ban earlier this season for boarding Stars defender Miro Heiskanen.

While the depth enforcer was ferried between New York and AHL Hartford many times in the early going of the season, he’s remained on the NHL roster since being activated from his suspension. He’s made 36 appearances in 2024-25, more than doubling his 2023-24 total, posting 2-3–5 with a plus-four rating and 63 PIMs. He’s averaging just under eight minutes of ice time per game and ranks sixth on the team with 103 hits.

The 6’9″, 255-lb forward entered the season with one goal – stay on the ice. Penalties and suspensions have overshadowed any upside he has as an effective bottom-six checking presence since he entered the league last season. He’s made some progress in that regard, averaging 1.75 PIMs per game compared to a ridiculous 4.18 last year.

Rempe put up 3-2–5 in 18 games with the Wolf Pack earlier this year. A pending restricted free agent, he should be in line for a sub-$1MM AAV on an extension as the Blueshirts navigate a cap crunch this summer.

Rookie Brett Berard will re-enter the lineup tomorrow against the Ducks in Rempe’s absence. He’d sat as a healthy scratch for the past two games. He’s been a more effective depth scorer than the latter in limited minutes, notching 4-4–8 in 28 games. New York selected Berard, 22, in the fifth round in 2020.

Rangers Reassign Anton Blidh

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March 21: The Rangers’ PR department announced they’ve assigned Blidh back to Hartford today. Since his services weren’t required in last night’s game, he has to be returned to the minors on off days to qualify as an emergency recall.

March 20: As expected, the New York Rangers have recalled depth forward Anton Blidh from their AHL affiliate, the Hartford Wolf Pack. Multiple reports this morning indicated the Rangers could have multiple players out tonight against the Toronto Maple Leafs, but forward Matt Rempe is the only one as he’s out with an illness.

Blidh wasn’t included in tonight’s lineup and likely won’t be during the call-up. The Molnlycke, Sweden native is in his third season with the Rangers organization but has only suited up in one contest since being acquired from the Colorado Avalance in 2023.

Still, he’s been productive in the AHL with Hartford. The career bottom-six talent has scored 31 goals and 56 points in 131 games with the Wolf Pack, making for the best stretch of his career since playing for the AHL’s Providence Bruins in the late 2010s. He’s already earned a career-high 28 points this season with 11 games remaining in Hartford’s schedule.

Meanwhile, Rempe is absent from New York’s lineup for the first time in 29 games. The young enforcer has scored two goals and five points, delivering 87 hits, and earning 30 penalty minutes. Rempe’s 29 consecutive games are relatively impressive given he’s had considerable issues with suspensions and injuries through the first two years of his NHL career.

Injury Notes: Kreider, Grzelcyk, Cooley

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Before today’s game against the New York Rangers and Pittsburgh Penguins, the former announced a minor injury just before puck drop. The Rangers shared winger Chris Kreider is out with an upper-body injury although his recovery timeline is only considered day-to-day.

It’s difficult to pinpoint any specific moment for Kreider’s current injury. The veteran forward has been dealing with a recurrent back spasms issue for much of the regular season, while he could also be one of the several players to succumb to a minor injury throughout the 4 Nations Face-Off tournament.

Still, despite the specifics of the injury, Kreider did participate in the Rangers’ first game back from the tournament. Despite the team being completely outclassed by the Buffalo Sabres, Kreider scored one goal over 15 minutes in yesterday’s contest joining Mika Zibanejad as the only New York forward to not have a negative rating.

Other injury notes:

  • Hopping over to the other side of today’s Metropolitan Division tilt, the Penguins announced defenseman Matt Grzelcyk won’t return to the game due to an upper-body injury. The pending unrestricted free agent only skated in five minutes of today’s action before being hit from behind by Ranger forward Matt Rempe. Rempe was originally reprimanded with a five-minute major only to be downgraded to a two-minute minor call.
  • The Utah Hockey Club could be short-handed when they play their first home game in 19 days tonight. According to Brogan Houston of Deseret News Sports, Utah forward Logan Cooley is a game-time decision for this evening’s event. Cooley is confirmed to be dealing with a lower-body issue but it’s not severe enough to warrant a concrete absence from the lineup. The sophomore center is only one point away from tying his total production from last year scoring 15 goals and 43 points in 50 games.

Rangers Place Chris Kreider On Injured Reserve

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11:30 a.m.: Rempe has officially been added back to the roster today, per a team announcement.

9:49 a.m.: The Rangers placed left-winger Chris Kreider on injured reserve Tuesday, reports Larry Brooks of the New York Post. The move is retroactive to his last appearance on Saturday against the Capitals. It rules him out for their next three contests with an upper-body injury, including tonight’s game against the Stars and Thursday’s rivalry matchup with the Devils. They now have an open roster spot, which, as Brooks notes, could go to winger Matt Rempe after he was sent down yesterday to make room for waiver claim Arthur Kaliyev.

As Colin Stephenson of Newsday points out, doing so would mean Rempe serves the final game of his eight-game suspension for elbowing Stars defenseman Miro Heiskanen today. He would then be available to re-enter the lineup for the New Jersey game. 

Kreider’s upper-body issue may be recurring, partially explaining why the 6’3″ winger’s point production has fallen off a cliff this season. He also missed three games with a UBI in November.

It is unfortunate timing for the 33-year-old, who was on a season-high three-game point streak before exiting the lineup. After scoring the first goal of the game in a 7-4 loss to Washington, he sat out the following day’s 6-2 win over the Blackhawks.

Despite still seeing consistent top-six usage, Kreider has 15 points in 34 games this year – just 0.44 per game. That would be the lowest rate of his 13-year career aside from a 23-game trial in the 2012-13 campaign, his first taste of NHL regular-season hockey.

13 of those 15 points are goals, still putting him on pace for a strong 31 goals if he played a full 82 games. Still, that would check out as his worst total since the 2020-21 season, notwithstanding his paltry two helpers on the year.

Before his injury, Kreider’s struggling second line, including Mika Zibanejad and Reilly Smith, was beginning to turn things around. The latter two also have active three-game point streaks. According to MoneyPuck, the trio has now controlled 51.2% of expected goals on the year after sitting below 50% through most of the early going.

Even through his struggles and trade rumors this season, Kreider still ranks second on the Blueshirts in goals behind Artemi Panarin’s 16 in 37 games. Generating offense has been an issue overall for the Rangers, who are 21st in the league at 2.90 goals per game. That’s down sharply from last year’s 3.39 mark, which placed them seventh in the league amid a Presidents’ Trophy-winning season.

Kreider will be eligible to return on Jan. 14 against the Avalanche if his health allows.

New York Rangers Reassign Matt Rempe

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A corresponding transaction was necessary for the New York Rangers after claiming Arthur Kaliyev off waivers from the Los Angeles Kings earlier today. The Rangers have reassigned forward Matt Rempe to their AHL affiliate, the Hartford Wolf Pack, to bring their active roster back down to the 23-man limit.

The young enforcer is seven games into an eight-game suspension and will need to miss one more should be recalled to the active roster at any point for the remaining season. Rempe has failed to find the scoresheet in five games for the Rangers this season but has accrued 24 PIMs overall.

Because his only role is becoming increasingly rarer in professional hockey, Rempe has failed to accrue much playing time throughout his brief NHL career. Since debuting with the Rangers last year, Rempe has scored one goal and one assist in 22 games averaging 5:46 of ice time per game.

He returns to a Wolf Pack lineup where he’s largely been tasked with the same role but has had more offensive production to lean on. Since joining Hartford for the 2022-23 AHL season, Rempe has scored 17 goals and 27 points in 114 contests but has also racked up an eye-popping 205 career PIMs.

The Wolf Pack are currently clinging to a playoff spot with a 15-14-2-1 record through the first 40 games and sit seventh in the league with 454 PIMs. Despite still facing a suspension in the NHL, Rempe is eligible to suit up in Hartford’s next game against the Lehigh Valley Phantoms on Friday.

Rangers’ Matt Rempe Suspended Eight Games

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Rangers winger Matt Rempe has been assessed an eight-game suspension by the league’s Department of Player Safety for a boarding/elbowing infraction against Stars defenseman Miro Heiskanen, the league announced.

Rempe laid the hit on Heiskanen (explained further here) in the third period of Friday’s 3-1 win. He was ejected on the play, the fourth time he’s faced such discipline in his 22-game NHL career. He was also assessed a two-minute minor for elbowing on the play, as well as an additional roughing minor in the aftermath. Unsurprisingly, after being suspended four games for a similar infraction against Devils defenseman Jonas Siegenthaler in March last season, he was offered an in-person hearing, which gives DoPS the option of suspending him for six games or more.

Rempe already missed today’s loss to the Hurricanes, so he has seven more games to serve. He’s considered a repeat offender under Player Safety guidelines and will forfeit $80K in salary during his suspension, relays Chris Johnston of TSN and The Athletic. He’ll still count against the active roster and the team’s salary cap during that time, reducing the Rangers’ flexibility for an extended period. He can appeal the suspension to league commissioner Gary Bettman, so it’s possible he might be back earlier than Jan. 9 against the Devils if he’s successful.

The incident was one of many controversial ones in Rempe’s young career. The 22-year-old, who the Blueshirts selected 165th overall in the 2020 draft, has accumulated 95 PIMs in just 22 appearances over the last two seasons while averaging 5:46 of ice time per game. The wealth of time spent in the dressing room or in the penalty box has limited his effectiveness offensively and put the Rangers in more shorthanded situations than they’d like, although it’s also worth noting he’s drawn the most penalties per 60 minutes of any Ranger over the last two seasons.

The 6’8″, 240-lb winger has spent most of this season on assignment to AHL Hartford, where he has three goals, two assists and 22 PIMs in 18 showings with a -3 rating. His game against Dallas was only his fifth NHL appearance of the season.

In the meantime, Rempe’s absence will secure more ice time for developing depth options like Brett Berard and Adam Edstrom. They still have veteran Jonny Brodzinski on hand as an extra forward to enter the lineup if necessary as well.

Matt Rempe Offered In-Person Hearing With Department Of Player Safety

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Rangers winger Matt Rempe got an opportunity to return to New York following the trade of Kaapo Kakko earlier in the week.  He made a big impression in his first game back but not the one he was necessarily looking to make.  The NHL announced today that he has been offered an in-person hearing for a hit made on Stars defenseman Miro Heiskanen on Friday; a clip of the hit via B/R Open Ice can be found here.

The hit came in the third period last night, one that saw him receive a five-minute major for elbowing along with a game misconduct.  Notably, the league’s release indicates that both elbowing and boarding are among the grounds being considered for supplemental discipline.

By offering an in-person hearing, the NHL now has the ability to suspend Rempe for more than five games which is the maximum had it been a telephone hearing.  That said, them offering it doesn’t necessarily mean he’ll receive six or more games either.  The Department of Player Safety relayed later in the day (Twitter link) that the hearing will be held on Sunday.

Rempe has played in 22 career regular season games and this was the fourth ejection of his young career.  He has been suspended once before, that coming back in March when he received a four-game ban for elbowing.  He will fall under repeat offender status when it comes to determining both the length of suspension and the calculation of forfeited wages where the denominator will be 82 (representing games) instead of the number of days in a particular season.

Rangers Recall Matt Rempe, Assign Victor Mancini To AHL

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The Kaapo Kakko swap wasn’t the only transaction the Rangers made today.  Not long after the trade was made official, the team announced (Twitter link) that they’ve recalled winger Matt Rempe from AHL Hartford while re-assigning defenseman Victor Mancini to the Wolf Pack.

Rempe made his presence felt down the stretch last season and earned a spot with New York in training camp.  However, the 22-year-old didn’t play much early on and since he’s still waiver-exempt, the team has elected to largely keep him in the minors this season, allowing him to get more playing time while playing a bigger role than he has typically had with the big club.

With the Rangers, Rempe has been limited to just four games this season where he has been held off the scoresheet although he has seven hits and seven penalty minutes in just 6:26 of playing time per night, an uptick from the 5:38 he played last night.  In Hartford, he has suited up 18 times, picking up three goals and two assists along with 22 penalty minutes.

As for Mancini, the 22-year-old is in his first professional season after wrapping up his college career at the University of Nebraska-Omaha last year.  Ideally, New York’s preference would have been for him to play big minutes in the minors but a strong early showing down there plus a need to help their back end has resulted in him primarily playing for the Rangers.  With the addition of William Borgen, they can now allow Mancini to get that bigger playing time in Hartford.

Mancini has played in 15 games with New York so far this season, picking up a goal and four assists while logging 15:05 per night of playing time.  He has also played in six games with the Wolf Pack, recording five points.  His cap hit is $50K higher than Rempe’s, allowing them to offset a small portion of the extra $300K pro-rated that they took on in the Kakko-Borgen swap.

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