Rangers place Jimmy Vesey on long term injured reserve and Ryan Lindgren on IR; Artemi Panarin 'good to go'
Jimmy Vesey of the Rangers skates during the first period against the Montreal Canadiens at Madison Square Garden on April 7. Credit: Jim McIsaac
GREENBURGH — With forward Jimmy Vesey being placed on long-term injured reserve Monday with a lower body injury, and defenseman Ryan Lindgren going on injured reserve with an upper body injury, the Rangers made a slew of moves designed to get them roster-compliant by Tuesday's 5 p.m. deadline. Most of them are “paper’’ transactions, with most of the players being re-assigned not actually going anywhere.
Vesey, a fourth-line winger and penalty killer, will be forced to miss at least 24 days and 10 games under the LTIR rules. The team can replace him on the 23-man roster and exceed the salary cap by up to the amount of Vesey’s cap hit of $800,000.
Lindgren, who skated on his own before practice on Monday, must sit out at least seven days. He will miss Wednesday’s regular-season opener in Pittsburgh against the Penguins and the first two games at Madison Square Garden — Saturday against the Utah Hockey Club and Monday against Detroit. The team will be allowed to replace him on the 23-man roster but his salary will continue to count against the cap.
In order to maximize the number by which the Rangers will be able to exceed the cap by replacing Vesey, the club had to come as close to the $88 million allowed by the cap as possible. To do so, it assigned all five of its waiver-exempt players — forwards Brett Berard, Will Cuylle, Adam Edstrom and Matt Rempe, and defenseman Victor Mancini — to AHL Hartford and replaced them with four players recalled from Hartford: forwards Anton Blidh, Curtis Leschyshyn and Adam Sykora and defenseman Ben Harpur.
In addition, defenseman Matthew Robertson, who was placed on waivers on Sunday, cleared waivers and remains on the Rangers’ roster.
The four players who were recalled Monday, plus Robertson, will all be sent down to Hartford after 5 p.m. Tuesday, a league source said. And some of the players — Cuylle, Rempe, Mancini and, presumably, Edstrom — will be recalled. Berard likely will actually stay remain in Hartford.
Panarin ready for opener
Artemi Panarin, who left last Tuesday’s preseason game early with a lower body injury, returned to practice and declared himself fit to play in Wednesday’s season opener. “I feel good right now,’’ he said. “Good to go.’’ Panarin, who also left his first preseason game with the same injury, said he took a hit to the same spot in warmups in his second game. He tried to go but left in the first period for precautionary reasons.
Blue lines
Mika Zibanejad did not practice for “maintenance’’ reasons, the Rangers said. “I'd like to see him back there [Wednesday morning], but it's maintenance,’’ coach Peter Laviolette said… The team will not practice on Tuesday.
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.
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