Notes: Lindgren, Klingberg, Howard

Mollie Walker of the New York Post reports New York Rangers defenseman Ryan Lindgren will not play this evening. She added that this is the same injury the top-pairing defenseman was dealing with previously and he tweaked it in his return on Tuesday night. Lindgren had previously missed four weeks of action with what has been termed an upper-body injury. He returned to face the Carolina Hurricanes two nights ago and briefly left before returning to finish the game. The Rangers appear to be taking a cautious approach and don’t want a key piece of their blue line to make things worse with the playoffs on the horizon.

The Rangers have 11 regular season games remaining before the postseason, but appear locked into the third seed in the Metropolitan Division. They are six points back of the New Jersey Devils for second in the division, but hold a ten point advantage on the New York Islanders who are in the top wildcard spot.

• John Klingberg of the Minnesota Wild will also miss tonight’s game, according to a team release. Klingberg, an offensive defenseman, has four points in nine games since being acquired from the Anaheim Ducks at the trade deadline for Nikita Nesterenko, Andrej Sustr and a fourth-round draft pick. The team says it is an upper-body injury but there are not other details about the severity of the injury.
• Chris Peters of Flo Hockey reports Isaac Howard is entering NCAA’s transfer portal. This will pave his departure from the University of Minnesota-Duluth after one season. Howard was a first-round pick of the Tampa Bay Lightning in 2022 and had six goals and 17 points in 35 games as a freshman. Peters also mentions this could lead him to reuniting with former coach Adam Nightingale who is behind the bench of Michigan State, but nothing is official yet.