Rangers' Barclay Goodrow provides Gerard Gallant with plenty of options

PHILADELPHIA — Barclay Goodrow won a couple of Stanley Cups with the Tampa Bay Lightning as a gritty third-line forward, and when the Rangers needed to add some sandpaper to their collection of skilled forwards in the summer of 2021, they traded for him and signed him to a six-year, $21.85 million contract.

Goodrow has given the Rangers what they’ve needed and more. He’s a team leader who checks, wins faceoffs and plays anywhere in the lineup. He even led the team in fights (with four) entering Saturday’s game against the Flyers.

Still, the sight of the 29-year-old Goodrow — whose 13 goals last season were a career high — playing on the Rangers’ top line with Artemi Panarin and Mika Zibanejad doesn’t exactly fire up the imaginations of the fans.

“We always pick on Goodrow,’’ coach Gerard Gallant said after Friday’s practice. “All he does is do a good job for me.’’

Goodrow had a goal and assist on Saturday to help the Rangers build a 3-2 second-period lead over the Flyers.

Gallant is well aware that Goodrow is not a 40-goal scorer, but the 6-2, 204-pounder has been the perfect utility player for the coach to move around the lineup when needed.

In this instance, Gallant was searching for some line combinations that would work for a team struggling to find itself. He broke up the longstanding combination of Zibanejad and Chris Kreider and split up the pair of Panarin and Vincent Trocheck in order to try Panarin with 23-year-old center Filip Chytil. He put Goodrow on the right of those two, giving the line a strong defensive element and a player who could take a faceoff in key situations (Goodrow’s win percentage entering Saturday was 46.7, compared to Chytil’s 37.5).

Then, when Gallant felt the team needed a shakeup against the Devils, he swapped Zibanejad in for Chytil. In doing so, he reunited Chytil with his Kid Line wingers, Alexis Lafrenière and Kaapo Kakko, while creating a top line with the team’s top two scorers (Panarin and Zibanejad) and its top defensive forward in Goodrow.

“They’re not only top forwards on this team but top forwards throughout the whole league,’’ Goodrow said of Zibanejad and Panarin. “It’s fun. I just try to bring what I bring to the line and help get them the puck as much as I can.’’

In this case, Goodrow — who has played with every forward on the roster this season except Jonny Brodzinski — could serve as a link between Panarin and Zibanejad, who had not played together much (other than on the power play) in their four seasons as teammates.

“The last game [Thursday against Toronto] was the first game we played together, the three of us,’’ Goodrow said. “I’ve played . . . individually with each of them. I think last game there were some plays that maybe would have been there if we had a little bit more chemistry amongst the line. But definitely, I thought we did a lot of good things. We shut down [Toronto’s] top line, so there’s a lot of good to come from it. But I think the chemistry is going to build the more we play together and we should see some more results.’’

Of course, the way Gallant has been mixing the lines of late, a top line of Panarin, Zibanejad and Goodrow is not likely to stay together for an extended period. In fact, on Friday, Gallant hinted that while he likes the lines as they are at the moment, they aren’t necessarily the lines he envisions long term. Reuniting Zibanejad with Kreider, for instance, is something the coach mentioned as a possibility at some point.

“I know what our perfect lines are,’’ Gallant said. “Are they there right today? Maybe not. They might get switched a little bit again.’’

When they are, Gallant will have comfort in knowing he can put Goodrow anywhere, to fill any hole.

By Colin Stephenson

colin.stephenson@newsday.comColinSNewsday

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.