Tyler Motte can't contain his excitement at being a Ranger again
Tyler Motte when he was with the Rangers in March 2022. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
In one three-minute group interview, Tyler Motte uttered the word “excited’’ eight times and the word “exciting’’ once.
Yes, Motte, the 5-10, 192-pound forechecking machine the Rangers reacquired Sunday, was happy to be back in their uniform.
“To have a little bit of a taste of this locker room and the city last year, [I’m] just excited to be back, and hopefully we’re ready for another run,’’ Motte said after the Rangers’ morning skate before Monday night’s game against Winnipeg at the Garden.
The Rangers sent Julien Gauthier and a conditional seventh-round draft pick to Ottawa to reacquire Motte, who was obtained at the NHL trade deadline from Vancouver last season. He played an important part in the Rangers’ surprise run to the Eastern Conference Final, scoring two goals in 15 games in the playoffs and providing plenty of energy and speed on the fourth line and the penalty kill.
The Rangers would have loved to re-sign Motte, a free agent, after the season; they just couldn’t afford him. He signed a one-year deal for $1.35 million with Ottawa — with whom he had three goals and six assists in 38 games — but he knew all along that there was a chance he’d be back on Broadway.
“Yeah, absolutely,’’ he said. “I don’t think any doors ever close. Obviously, I wanted to leave it open as long as possible. I enjoyed my time here.
“I like the fit here. I like this group a lot. It’s just one of those things that kind of didn’t work out, for one reason or another . . . Here we are, full circle, a little under a year later. So again, I’m excited to be back. The past is in the past; it is what it is. I’m here now, and I’m just excited to be part of it.’’
Coach Gerard Gallant is happy Motte is here, too.
“It’s good to get him back,’’ he said. “He played really well for us last year, so obviously, we like the player. We know what the player can do, and he knows our team and our system. So it’s great.’’
According to the Rangers, Motte is the second player in team history to be acquired in back-to-back seasons, joining Mark Hardy (1987-88 and 1988-89).
Motte said things were easier for him because he knew where the hotel was and knew exactly where to go in the morning. And he knew the coaching and support staff, too.
“It’s almost like you never left, a little bit,’’ he said.
Motte will be expected to add some bite to a fourth line that hasn’t done much and hasn’t been used much by Gallant this season. In Saturday’s 3-2 overtime loss to the Flames in Calgary — in the second game of a back-to-back — Gallant shortened his bench to 10 forwards in the third period and did not use the fourth line at all.
With Motte and Barclay Goodrow on the fourth line now, though, Gallant is more likely to trust the group to take shifts late in games.
“You know what he did here,’’ Gallant said of Motte. “He plays a fourth-line role. He kills penalties. He’s fast. He’s an aggressive little guy, and we like everything he brought, and what he did last year was excellent. And we expect the same this year.’’
With nearly two weeks to go before the trade deadline and the Rangers projected to have about $900,000 available under the $82.5 million salary cap, it still is possible that general manager Chris Drury — who already made his big splash when he traded for wing Vladimir Tarasenko and defenseman Niko Mikkola on Feb. 9 — could make one last deal that might shore up the fourth line even more.
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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