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.
There’s some speculation that Filip Chytil may be suffering another concussion, which would be the fifth of his career. He did have a heavy collision with Jesper Fast in the second period of the Rangers 2-1 win over the Carolina Hurricanes, and while he did skate afterwards, he looked in some discomfort on the bench and did not finish the period. There’s no timeline on Chytil’s return as of yet, and it may be a case of simply waiting out any lingering effects.
Another big loss comes in the form of Igor Shesterkin. At this stage there’s perhaps less concern over the starting netminder, who did stay on the ice for a few minutes after a collision with Jesperi Kotkaniemi as he drove to the net. Kotkaniemi’s stick appeared to make contact with Shesterkin’s leg as he slid past, and may have either caused an injury to the leg itself, or perhaps his groin. The Rangers netminder did flex his leg after he got back to his feet, and was able to backstop the Blueshirts to the win with several key saves in the third period.
With four players unavailable for tomorrow, the Rangers have added goaltender Louis Domingue and defenseman Connor Mackey to the roster, with Jonny Brodzinski having been called up earlier in the day.