Boo Nieves still remembers the sting of getting sent to Hartford in January 2019, and he remembers exactly who helped him swallow it.
The former Rangers forward said on Episode 73 of the Crazy Hockey Dads podcast that he had just worked his way back into New York’s lineup and was coming off a strong stretch when the decision came down during the NHL mandatory break. Four days before the Rangers beat the Boston Bruins 3-2 on Jan.
19, 2019, Nieves had posted two assists in a 6-2 win over the Carolina Hurricanes. New York had won three straight, and Nieves had five assists over his previous seven games, including a career-best three-game point streak earlier that month.
So when he learned he was headed to Hartford instead of getting a few days away, he wasn’t exactly thrilled.
“I was hurt, again, of course I was,” Nieves recalled with sarcasm recently on the Crazy Hockey Dads podcast, Episode 73. “And I had just gotten back to New York, and I was playing really well, and we had just beaten Boston, and we’re going into the mandatory week break.
“I’m like, ‘Oh great. I might go to California, see some friends.
I might go to Florida, see my family.’ Nope.
[Rangers coach] David Quinn’s like, ‘You’re going to go play in Hartford for this week.”
Nieves said the move felt like a step backward, especially after he felt he had earned his place. But with the Rangers taking a nine-day break before returning Jan. 29, the team sent Nieves, Ryan Lindgren, and Alexander Georgiev to Hartford to keep playing.
That didn’t make it any easier for Nieves to accept.
“I’m like, ‘You’ve got to be kidding me, dude. I’m scratching and clawing, and I’m playing well.”
Then came the moment that changed his view. After a night in what he called a “horrible hotel room,” Nieves got to the Wolf Pack rink the next morning and ran into Chris Drury, who was Hartford’s general manager and also an assistant GM with the Rangers.
Drury saw the frustration right away.
“He kind of stopped me in the hallway, and he was like, ‘Boo,” Nieves said. “He could tell I was pissed off, and he’s like, ‘Boo, do you think I want to be here?'”
Nieves said he could only answer, “No,” before Drury laid out the reality.
“But here we are. We’re here,” Drury replied.
“Just go play. We’ll be back in New York in a week.
I don’t want to be here either, but this is part of the job.”
That short exchange landed hard.
“It kind of hit me,” Nieves said. “I was like, ‘Holy crap.
This is Chris Drury. This guy’s won it.
He’s done it. He’s now on the other side of it.
He’s been where I’ve been. So, like, what am I going to say back to this guy?”
Nieves said the experience taught him something about the grind that comes with pro hockey and the tough stretches every player has to handle.
“It makes you hate hockey for a little bit,” Nieves said honestly. “But then it’s, can you turn the corner and understand that you do really love it and you’re just going through a rough time, or are you not cut out for it?”
Nieves played one more season after that, appearing in four games with the Rangers and 43 with Hartford before retiring after the 2019-20 campaign at age 26. He finished his Rangers career with 19 points, including five goals and 14 assists, in 76 games over four seasons.
In Other News...
Rangers May Have Just Dodged Their Worst Free Agency Mistake
The Rangers came up empty in their pursuit of Alex Tuch, but there may be a silver lining in how the market shook out. Tuch landed elsewhere on an eight-year deal, and the early reaction around the league has not been kind. The Athletic recently slotted the contract among the NHLs worst, citing concerns about how it could age and whether the value will hold up over the long term.
For New York, the miss looks a little less painful because the club moved quickly to address the same need by trading for Pavel Dorofeyev and locking him in on a seven-year contract. The Rangers were clearly shopping for a major addition, and while Tuch would have brought name value, the combination of term and risk attached to his new deal makes this one of those rare free-agent near-misses that can feel like a break instead of a setback. [Read more 🡒]
Marcus Pettersson Already Sounds Like Exactly What Rangers Needed
Marcus Pettersson did not need much convincing once the Rangers entered the picture. After waiving his no-movement clause to make the move to New York, the defenseman sounded genuinely excited about landing with a team whose coaching staff he already knows well, and his comfort level with Mike Sullivan clearly mattered in the decision. For a player changing cities in-season, that kind of familiarity can make a new situation feel a lot less like a leap.
Pettersson also has wasted little time getting acquainted on the player side, saying he has already had conversations with Mika Zibanejad and J.T. Miller since the trade. For the Rangers, that matters as much as the on-ice fit, because integrating a defenseman quickly is about more than systems and pairings. The bigger question now is how smoothly all of those connections translate once he gets into the room and onto the ice. [Read more 🡒]
Sean Durzi Feels The Pressure Of Fixing A Rangers Problem
Marcus Pettersson and Sean Durzi met the New York media for the first time since their trades, and Durzi arrived sounding like a player eager for a reset. He called the NHL a prove-yourself league, said the move gives him a fresh start, and framed the opportunity in the biggest possible terms, with the Stanley Cup as the goal. For a Rangers team looking to tighten up its blue line, Durzi is expected to step in as the No. 2 right-handed defender behind Adam Fox, which makes his adjustment more than just a personal storyline.
Durzi also made clear that the trade came with some added motivation, even if it landed as a bit of a surprise. That matters in New York, where every new defenseman gets measured not just by fit, but by whether he can help solve a long-running problem on the back end. The Rangers are counting on him to bring stability and a little urgency to a role that carries real pressure, and the first public signs suggest he understands exactly what is at stake. [Read more 🡒]