The Rangers could be prioritizing adding some grit over another skilled forward, reports Lohud’s Vince Z. Mercogliano. That type of player would ideally then help shore up their defensive play in the bottom six as well. At the moment, New York has ample spending room with both Filip Chytil and Kaapo Kakko on LTIR but if both of those players return by the end of the season, that spending flexibility becomes much more limited. Accordingly, doing some scouting work on an impactful gritty depth player who doesn’t cost as much against the salary cap could be a wise course of action for them for now.
More from the Metropolitan:
- The Blue Jackets announced (Twitter link) that Elvis Merzlikins’ early departure from last night’s victory over Toronto was due to illness. Spencer Martin played the final two periods and overtime in relief. He will also miss today’s game versus Buffalo as team reporter Jeff Svoboda relays (Twitter link) that Merzlikins did not accompany the team on the trip. With Columbus carrying three goalies on its active roster, they don’t need to bring another netminder up from AHL Cleveland.
- Winger Jesse Puljujarvi skated with the Penguins on Friday for the first time since joining them on a PTO earlier this month, relays Seth Rorabaugh of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. The 25-year-old has been working his way back from double hip surgery and still hasn’t been fully cleared to play. If that comes after a few more skates with Pittsburgh, Puljujarvi could be an intriguing addition in the second half of the season on what’s quite likely to be a deal at or near the league minimum.
- The Devils announced (Twitter link) that they’ve activated forward Brian Halonen off of season-opening IR and assigned him to AHL Utica. The 24-year-old is in the second and final year of his entry-level contract and had 17 goals and 13 assists in 57 games with the Comets last season. Since Halonen wasn’t in the NHL at any point last season, he did not count against the cap while on SOIR.