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Rangers Unwilling To Trade 2024 First-Round Pick

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The Rangers are unwilling to move their first-round pick in the 2024 draft in their pursuit of a forward ahead of the March 8 trade deadline, TSN’s Darren Dreger said on Tuesday’s edition of “Insider Trading.” That directive comes from owner James Dolan, who wants the Rangers to be a part of the final fully in-person draft before decentralization at Sphere in Las Vegas. Dolan is the majority owner of the Sphere property.

Dreger doesn’t rule out the Rangers shopping their 2025 first-round selection in a deal for an impact forward, although that would leave them with just two selections in the first three rounds over the next two drafts. GM Chris Drury dealt away both the Rangers’ 2024 and 2025 third-round picks in deals for wingers Patrick Kane and Vladimir Tarasenko before last season’s trade deadline.

The Rangers’ need for a middle-six impact piece is once again obvious if they want to pull ahead of the crowded playoff field in the Eastern Conference, especially with center Filip Chytil sidelined for the remainder of the season. Dreger said the Rangers made an offer to the Flames for Elias Lindholm before they traded him to the Canucks last week, although it’s unclear whether Drury shopped his 2025 first-round pick to do so.

Rangers Place Nick Bonino On Unconditional Waivers

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After placing the veteran forward on waivers a little over a week ago, Chris Johnston of TSN is reporting the New York Rangers have placed Nick Bonino on unconditional waivers to terminate his contract. After signing a one-year, $800K contract with the Rangers this past summer, Bonino will once again be free to join any team with approximately 30 games left in the regular season.

Being a quick turnaround from his original waivers placement on January 26th, Larry Brooks of the New York Post is reporting that New York gave Bonino time during the All-Star break to think about his future with the organization, and he ultimately decided he was unwilling to join the Hartford Wolf Pack. Now being placed on unconditional waivers, the Rangers have chosen to honor Bonino’s desires.

As far as a potential landing spot for Bonino, he will likely be looking at a team with a significant amount of injuries to their forward core, such as the Chicago Blackhawks, San Jose Sharks, or Washington Capitals. However, even with some teams in desperate need of forward depth, it is tough to ascertain how much of an upgrade Bonino would be this season.

In 45 games for New York this year, Bonino had very little production, only scoring one goal and five points while averaging a touch over 12 minutes of ice time per night. Furthermore, per MoneyPuck, his typical linemates of Jimmy Vesey and Barclay Goodrow produced an expected goals against per 60 minutes of 3.19, which ranks the highest on the team for lines that have played more than 90 minutes together over the season.

Being unwilling to report to an AHL for the first time since the 2011-12 season, it appears that Bonino firmly believes he has more left in the tank to offer an NHL team. Without the same pedigree, players such as Corey Perry and Zach Parise have found landing spots deep into the regular season, perhaps giving Bonino some confidence that he too can find another home.

 

Ryan Lindgren To Return Monday; Jake Leschyshyn, Connor Mackey Recalled

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  • Rangers defenseman Ryan Lindgren is cleared to play in Monday’s contest against Colorado, head coach Peter Laviolette said (via The Athletic’s Peter Baugh). The 25-year-old sustained an upper-body injury early in a Jan. 26 game against the Golden Knights and missed the following night’s 7-2 win over the Senators. The pending RFA is nearing completion of a three-year, $9MM extension and has seven points in 47 games, the lowest offensive output of his NHL career. It’s been a down season for Lindgren on both sides of the puck, too – his 48.8% Corsi share at even strength is down over five percentage points from last season’s mark.
  • Staying with the Rangers, the team also recalled forward Jake Leschyshyn and defenseman Connor Mackey from AHL Hartford on Sunday. The two have been frequent travelers between leagues as of late, seeing a combined three recalls since the New Year. They’re both projected as healthy scratches for Monday and will serve as short-term injury insurance. Neither player recorded a point in their lone NHL appearances this season.

Rangers Taking Calls On Kaapo Kakko

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  • To finish off the reports from Insider Trading, Dreger also indicates that the General Manager of the New York Rangers, Chris Drury, has begun receiving calls on the availability of Kaapo Kakko. With Filip Chytil now missing the rest of the 2023-24 season due to injury, the Rangers have quite the hole down the middle after Mika Zibanejad and Vincent Trocheck. Only a few years removed from being the second overall pick, New York could build a package for a center with Kakko as the main piece heading back the other way.

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Filip Chytil To Miss Remainder Of 2023-24 Season

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Rangers center Filip Chytil will miss the rest of the 2023-24 season after sustaining a setback in his recovery from a suspected concussion last week, the team announced Sunday.

Chytil sustained the upper-body injury in a Nov. 2 game against the Hurricanes in a collision with opposing winger Jesper Fast and has not played since. The 24-year-old had recently returned to practice with the Rangers after spending a portion of his rehab process skating in his native Czechia.

It’s a tough blow for a young pivot looking to build on his breakout 2022-23 campaign. The 2017 first-round pick posted career-highs across the board last year with 22 goals, 23 assists, 45 points, and a +15 rating.

Chytil’s $4.44MM cap hit will remain on long-term injured reserve for the rest of the season. They haven’t dipped much into their LTIR pool for relief, so they’ll likely have around that figure to spend on added salaries at the March 8 trade deadline. Through 10 games this season, Chytil had six assists with a spectacular 59.1% Corsi share at even strength while getting an extended look in the top six for the first time in his career.

Most of that cap space will likely go toward finding a replacement for Chytil down the middle. AHL call-up Jonny Brodzinski has performed admirably in a third-line role, producing 11 points in 30 games with positive possession metrics, but a team with Stanley Cup aspirations will want a more tested performer behind Vincent Trocheck and Mika Zibanejad at center. Brodzinski’s services would be ideal on the fourth line, which hasn’t seen a solid option in the middle this season. Nick Bonino was recently waived and assigned to AHL Hartford, while Barclay Goodrow has struggled heavily with only one goal in 47 games and negative defensive impacts.

The Rangers hope the extended time off can permit Chytil to focus fully on his rehab and aid him in returning to NHL play for the 2024-25 campaign. PHR sends its best wishes to Chytil as he continues in his recovery.

Rangers Assign Jake Leschyshyn, Connor Mackey To AHL

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  • The Rangers assigned center Jake Leschyshyn and defenseman Connor Mackey to AHL Hartford, per the team’s public relations department. Both have served as recent roster fill-ins with New York dealing with some depth injuries. Leschyshyn has one appearance this season, coming on Jan. 11 against the Blues, but he did not play on his most recent two-game recall this week. The 24-year-old has been surpassed on the depth chart by players like rookie William Cuylle and AHL veteran Jonny Brodzinski since being claimed off waivers last season from the Golden Knights. His production in limited action with Hartford this season has been underwhelming as well, recording seven points in 16 games after operating near a point-per-game pace in his last two minor-league stints. Meanwhile, Mackey did suit up in Saturday’s dominant win over the Senators with Jacob Trouba suspended and Ryan Lindgren unavailable with an upper-body injury. The 27-year-old logged over 16 minutes in his Rangers debut, recording a +1 rating and a shot on goal. Neither player needs waivers to return to Hartford because they’ve spent less than 30 days on the active roster since they last cleared.

Jacob Trouba Receives Two-Game Suspension

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With the Rangers playing tonight, the Department of Player Safety needed to make a quick ruling following their disciplinary hearing with defenseman Jacob Trouba today.  That ruling has now been made as the league announced that the blueliner has been suspended for two games for his elbow on Golden Knights winger Pavel Dorofeyev.  The incident occurred late in the second period and no penalty was called on the play.

In the video announcing the suspension, the league acknowledged that elbows can be raised as part of a natural motion when skating, stopping, or making a play on the puck.  However, with the incident occurring off a faceoff, Trouba was deemed to not be making a play on the puck while his elbowing motion was not viewed as a natural motion while skating.

This is Trouba’s second career suspension while he has also been fined twice; that history was noted in the disciplinary video.  He will miss tonight’s game against Ottawa as well as their first game back after the break on February 5th versus Colorado.  Trouba will be eligible to return on February 7th against Tampa Bay.  Based on his AAV, he will forfeit a little over $83K in salary; that money will go to the Players’ Emergency Assistance Fund.

Rangers Recall Connor Mackey

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With the availability of two blueliners in question for tonight’s game against Ottawa, the Rangers have brought up some insurance, announcing (Twitter link) the recall of defenseman Connor Mackey from AHL Hartford.  New York had an open roster spot following yesterday’s assignment of Nick Bonino to the Wolf Pack.

The 27-year-old is in his first season with the Rangers after signing a one-year, two-way deal with them in free agency back in July.  While this marks his seventh recall of the year already, Mackey has yet to get into an NHL game.  Instead, he has only played in Hartford where he has been quieter than expected offensively with just eight points in 28 games.  By comparison, Mackey had 36 points in 53 games with AHL Stockton in 2021-22 while he was on an NHL roster full-time last year.

The two defenders whose availability is in question are defensemen Ryan Lindgren and Jacob Trouba.  Lindgren left last night’s loss to Vegas early with an upper-body injury while Trouba had a disciplinary hearing today, the outcome of which has not yet been announced.  If those two aren’t available, Mackey should see his first NHL action of the season.

Jacob Trouba To Have Player Safety Hearing

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The Rangers play their final game before their off week tonight and it’s possible they won’t have their captain available for that contest.  The Department of Player Safety announced that defenseman Jacob Trouba will have a disciplinary hearing today by phone for an elbowing infraction on Golden Knights winger Pavel Dorofeyev last night.

The incident occurred late in the second period following a faceoff and no penalty was called on the play.  Meanwhile, Dorofeyev left the game early in the third period with what head coach Bruce Cassidy called an upper-body injury.  There was no further clarity on how long he might be out for.  More information on that front is expected today.

Trouba has been suspended once before back in 2017 for an illegal check to the head while he was playing in Winnipeg.  While enough time has elapsed that it won’t count against him from a forfeited salary standpoint if he’s suspended, it could be taken into consideration in determining how much time Trouba might miss.

Filip Chytil Returns To Practice

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1/25: A few days ago, reporting suggested that the New York Rangers had no clear timeline for the return of Filip Chytil, who has been out of the lineup with an upper-body injury since November 2nd. In a positive development this afternoon, it was reported that Chytil has resumed skating, and was back on the ice today for practice albeit in a non-contact jersey (X Link).

Just now returning to the ice, it will likely be a few more weeks until Chytil is ready to return, but at the very least it is now on the team’s horizon. As one of the more dominant teams in the league at the beginning of the season, the Rangers are 3-5-2 in their last 10 games, averaging 2.6 goals a game; showing a clear need for an offensive jolt.

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