Injuries Sideline Fox, Chytil and Shesterkin
After a relatively healthy year last season, the Rangers have been hit with some injuries to key players that could stifle their early season momentum. Heading into tomorrow’s night’s game in Minnesota, the team will be without four of their starters, with Barclay Goodrow also sitting out to be with his expectant partner.
With the Rangers off today, there’s uncertainty around the extent of the injuries of the three, though Adam Fox will miss at least 10 games (the minimum for LTIR), and could possibly miss more depending on the extent of the injury. The move by the Rangers does allow the team to exceed the Cap number by up to $9.5M for the duration of his stay on LTIR, but also eats into any potential trade deadline space, assuming that his injury isn’t more serious.
Rangers Call Up Brodzinski
The Rangers made a move today to call up Hartford Wolf Pack captain Jonny Brodzinski as injury coverage for Filip Chytil. The Rangers lost both Chytil and defenseman Adam Fox to injuries during the game against the Hurricanes on Thursday night, and the call up of Brodzinski suggests that Chytil might be set to miss some time.
Calling up Brodzinski does put some pressure on the salary cap, with just $10K of projected space with him on the roster along with the other two reserves: Tyler Pitlick and Zac Jones. Brodzinski was a late cut from camp though, and can play center unlike Pitlick, so perhaps would slot into that 3rd line role with Vincent Trocheck moving up.