Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Utter-chaos land, New York, NY. The Rangers are right back at it for the second half of a back to back (with travel) to host the Los Angeles Kings for their second meeting of the season. The Rangers are coming off an atrocious performance yesterday afternoon, where they not only lost 6-3 to Washington, but lost Ryan Lindgren to injury. Early on in yesterday's game, Ryan Lindgren took a questionable hit from Tj Oshie that left him skating to the bench with his arm hanging still, very much appearing to be dislocated. Though I and most fans are no doctors, the Rangers have listed Ryan Lindgren as "day-to-day," and given everything going on behind the scenes with the Rangers, it's quite challenging to really know what to expect.
The Rangers are now on a 3.5 game losing streak, (OT loss to Calgary) so they can't keep letting all the trade deadline distractions act as an excuse. However, a lot of news came out during game time yesterday that again, almost took precedent over the game being played. First off, the Rangers finally put forward Jake Leschyshyn on waivers which was a move we have all been expecting for about 24 hours. Not long after word on that came out, the Rangers announced that they were sending former ninth overall pick Vitaly Kravstov to the Vancouver Canucks in exchange for a 2026 seventh round pick and forward Will Lockwood.
There's a lot to talk about regarding the Rangers today so I'll quickly try to breakdown the trade. It's pretty clear the point of this trade is to shed money off the payroll to make room for Patrick Kane. Kravtsov has been rumored to have wanted a trade for longer than he's even been a Ranger so the trade doesn't really come as a surprise. He's been linked to the Canucks in the past as well making the trade partner not much of a surprise either. The return on the other hand, certainly underwhelming. You have to wonder, if it wasn't for the pressure to move heaven and earth to fit Patrick Kane in the mix, if a trade involving Kravtsov would've waited until the offseason. There were reports the Rangers were trying to get Nils Hoglander, who is in a similar situation as Kravtsov in Vancouver, as part of the deal. However, given everything going on with the Rangers, the Canucks had all the negotiating power which left Chris Drury with a seventh and Lockwood.
Now before I go into Will Lockwood, I want to break and quickly mention that the Rangers currently have a shorthanded roster. With Leschychsyn to waivers, Kravtsov to Vancouver and now Lindgren injured, the Rangers only have 19 healthy players on their active roster. As of the time I'm writing this, (1:18 pm) the Rangers haven't made any other roster moves, haven't provided any updates on Lindgren, leaving the question of how they are going to line up against the Kings tonight very up in the air. CapFriendly currently has Lockwood listed as a non-rostered player. Normally it would make sense for the Rangers to call someone up or just have Lockwood report to New York but because of Kane and the Salary Cap, the Rangers may not be able to do that.
So where does that leave the Blueshirt's for tonight? Well, there are many different scenarios. For starters, there's a chance Ryan Lindgren isn't totally ruled out for tonight which is wild to consider given how bad his injury looked. The Rangers could simply play shorthanded which definitely isn't ideal. Again, because of everything going on, it's unlikely they officially call anyone up. Even if they were to do so on an emergency basis, that player would still count towards the cap which is what the Rangers are trying to avoid in this situation. One question that's come up a lot is if the Rangers put Ryan Lindgren on LTIR couldn't they just trade for Kane immediately?
The answer to that is a bit more complicated than one may think and the important thing getting lost in all this is Ryan Lindgren is arguably the Rangers second most important defenseman. I know Trouba's the captain, Miller's the young stud and Braden Schneider's an honorable mention to that but the team historically falls apart without 55 in the lineup. He's their most reliable defender and the perfect compliment to Adam Fox. If the Rangers put him on LTIR, then they're committing to being without him for a significant amount of time. Especially with how much this team is all of a sudden struggling, it's not really in their best interest to just put aside one of their top players right now.
According to David Pagnotta on NHL Network this afternoon, a deal for Kane is pretty much done and it's just a matter of waiting for all the finances to work out. Given that, there isn't much point in arguing whether the Rangers should or shouldn't bring on Kane however, this Lindgren injury is an eye-opening cause for concern with the Rangers. Bringing on Kane means the Rangers can not possibly make any other acquisitions so at this points, what you see is what you get with the Rangers for the rest of the season + playoffs once the Patrick Kane move is official. Now with an injury to Lindgren, the Rangers are looking at:
Miller - Fox
Mikkola - Trouba
Harpur - Schneider
Fine, whatever. But if you lose one more core defender? This team is screwed. Next in line you have Libor Hajek, Zac Jones, Matthew Robertson, Andy Welinski then a bunch of other AHL players. In that order you have a guy who hasn't been able to crack a full time NHL gig with the Rangers for the past four seasons, a guy who isn't ready for full time NHL duties, a guy who has never played a regular season NHL game and a seasoned depth defender who is best used in worst case scenarios. (No offense of course). Niko Mikkola hasn't necessarily been great. Ben Harpur is a vibe but not an ideal everyday defender. At 100% health with everyone cooking, the Rangers have a really good defensive core. Take one guy, especially Lindgren out of that mix, the wheels fall off the wagon.
This is the big risk with bringing on Kane but again, it appears to be too late to worry about that and obviously the reward that counters that risk is going all the way. Hopefully the Lindgren injury isn't as serious as it looked and hopefully the Blueshirt's find a way to get back until the stars align for Kane. Going back to Will Lockwood, again it's not clear what the Rangers immediate plan for him is but he's a good, certainly better than nothing pick up. A former USNTDP and U of Michigan product, who plays the right side. Isn't necessarily a big bodied guy who at 24 years old, has yet to really make a name for himself. He's put up decent AHL numbers and has some NHL experience despite finding a way to translate his game to that level just yet. He plays a more defensive game, isn't afraid to get physical and plays the game "the right way" which Gerard Gallant would likely love. The Rangers essentially replace Julien Gauthier with him and will hope he becomes a Tyler Motte type of player.
Does that cover everything? Oh right, there was a game yesterday and one in three hours. We don't really need to get into yesterday's game. They played awful and the score accurately represented that. Losing Lindgren was unfortunately the main talking point aside from Barclay Goodrow finding the back of the net for the first time in a long time. Kreider converted on a power play to spark some life before quickly being shut back down by an Evgeny Kuznetsov goal. Kaapo Kakko got a garbage time goal then it was get out and on the plane back home.
Tonight, the Rangers will host the Kings who they last saw on their first West Coast road trip back in November when Kreider had a pair of goals giving the Blueshirt's a 5-3 win. Igor Shesterkin, who was pulled in the second period of yesterday's game could get right back on the horse tonight in attempts to help his team get out of this funk. Despite being pulled, Shesterkin looked to be much better than he has in recent showings which is definitely nice to see. There's no question the Rangers need to play with some fire tonight as they are now 0-3-1 in their last four. The Kings are not going to be a walk in the park by any means as they currently have one point less than the Rangers do in the standings.
The Kings have been in town all weekend as they picked up a pair of points from a 3-2 win on Long Island Friday Night. They have gone 5-1-1 in their seven games that followed the All-Star break with the two losses coming in the two games before the Islanders on Friday. The Kings will look to get back on track with the wins as the Rangers will be just as hungry for what is becoming desperately needed points. It'll be interesting to see what happens, if anything in these next couple of hours before puck drop, but regardless the Rangers need to get back on track.
Chris Feldman
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