Injuries have become a factor for Rangers this season
Ryan Lindgren #55 of the Rangers skates against the New Jersey Devils at Madison Square Garden on September 29, 2022. Credit: Getty Images
GREENBURGH, N.Y. – Gerard Gallant rapped his knuckles on the table behind him during his post-practice media session Saturday. The question he was about to answer was about all the injuries the Rangers have had to deal with already this season.
“A lot more than usual,’’ the Rangers coach said. “A lot more than last year, that I can remember. Yeah, definitely.’’
Center Filip Chytil, who has missed the last six games with what the Rangers are calling an upper-body injury (but looks like it was a concussion), appears ready to return to action Sunday when the Rangers host the Detroit Red Wings at 5 p.m. at Madison Square Garden. But defenseman Ryan Lindgren, who left Thursday’s loss to Boston with an upper-body injury, did not practice Saturday and is doubtful for Sunday, the team said. Forward Vitali Kravtsov remains out with an upper-body injury (that is also suspected to be a concussion).
When the Rangers barged their way into the playoffs and the Eastern Conference finals last season, racking up a 52 regular season wins, they mostly didn’t have too many serious injuries. Bottom-six forward Sammy Blais was lost for the season with a torn ACL, and first-line right wing Kaapo Kakko missed 11 weeks with what was believed to be a broken wrist. Fourth-line center Kevin Rooney missed five weeks with an upper-body injury, and defenseman Adam Fox suffered an upper-body injury just before the All-Star break, though he only missed three games, plus the All-Star Game. And Igor Shesterkin missed three weeks last season with a groin strain.
But injuries have definitely been a factor for the Rangers this season. The team had hoped to bank some salary cap space, in order to increase their flexibility to make additions at the trade deadline by carrying 22 on their roster, one below the limit of 23. But an injury to Blais in the final preseason game prevented them from doing that. On Oct. 19, they placed Dryden Hunt on waivers, with the intention of sending him to the minor leagues and trimming the roster to 22, but a week later, injuries to Chytil and Kravtsov forced them to call up forward Julien Gauthier from the minors and put them back at the maximum 23-man roster.
The significance of having 22 on the roster, rather than 23, is that the space under the salary cap accrues every day, so had the Rangers been able to stay roughly $1 million under the cap, that money would go up slightly every day, and by the time the trade deadline arrives March 3, they would have about $4 million in cap space to play with.
As it stands, with 23 on the roster, the Rangers are $200,957 under the $82.5 million salary cap, according to CapFriendly. And if it stays the same, they would have about $765,000 available at the trade deadline, which wouldn’t allow them to do much as far as supplementing the roster.
But the other thing about injuries is, of course, they weaken the roster. Without Chytil centering the third line, the trio of Jimmy Vesey, Barclay Goodrow and Gauthier wasn’t very threatening to opposing teams.
Goodrow has a goal and an assist in the six games Chytil has missed (both coming in the 3-2 shootout loss to Colorado) and Gauthier has 1-1-2 (both coming in the 6-3 win over Dallas). Vesey also is 1-1-2 in the six games Chytil was out, but his goal Thursday against Boston came in the middle of a line change, where he happened to be on ice with Mika Zibanejad and Kaapo Kakko, and not when he was playing on the third line.
So getting Chytil back will be a welcome boost to the Rangers lineup.
“He's a huge part of our team,’’ Gallant said. “Fil's a big part of our group. And you know, we really miss him when he's out. So obviously it makes a big difference in your top nine (forward group), for sure.’’
New look for Chytil
Chytil practiced Saturday with a grey-tinted eye shield.
“I need to look good, you know? So I don't want to look like everybody else,’’ he cracked when asked about the new look. “No, it helps me… the ice and everything's light, so (the tinted visor is) helping to my body, and that's why I use it.’’
Igor or Halak in net?
Gallant would not reveal who his starting goaltender will be on Sunday, but Igor Shesterkin has played four games in a row, including both ends of a back-to-back last weekend in Dallas and Arizona. Backup Jaroslav Halak last played in the 3-0 loss to the Islanders Oct. 26, and with no back-to-backs coming until next weekend, the question was asked if the 37-year-old needs to get into a game sometime soon.
“You don't worry about that,’’ Gallant said. “Igor is not going to play 82 games. It's not going to happen. We’re confident in Halak. He played two real good games out of his three. So there's not an issue there. We decided to go the way we went the last little while… so we'll make those decisions game-by-game.’’
Colin Stephenson covers the Rangers for Newsday. He has spent more than two decades covering the NHL and just about every sports team in the New York metropolitan area.