The Rangers will be without Alberts Smits for the next few weeks after the fifth overall pick in the 2026 NHL Draft suffered his first injury in the NHL, according to Peter Baugh of The Athletic. New York said Smits has an upper-body injury, and he was already held out of yesterday’s game against the Seattle Kraken.
To cover the spot, the Rangers brought up depth defenseman Marc Del Gaizo. He should head back to AHL Hartford once Sean Durzi is healthy enough to return from injured reserve, where he’s currently listed with an undisclosed injury.
Smits’ absence will stretch through the rest of New York’s road swing in the Pacific Division and also keep him out of the team’s next home game against the Montreal Canadiens on November 16th. After that, the Rangers have a six-day break. Before getting hurt, Smits had gone scoreless in 17 games with a minus-2 rating while averaging 14:29 of ice time per night.
There’s also injury news out of Columbus, where the Blue Jackets have ruled out Conor Garland for tomorrow’s game against the Florida Panthers with an upper-body injury, per Brian Hedger of the Columbus Dispatch. Head coach Rick Bowness did not have a timetable for Garland’s return, so this could be more than a one-game absence.
Garland is in the first season of a six-year, $36MM extension and has one assist in 15 games this year, along with a minus-5 rating.
In New Jersey, the Devils added some forward insurance before tomorrow’s matchup with the Winnipeg Jets. The team announced it has recalled Riley Tufte from the AHL’s Utica Comets.
Tufte is in his first season with the Devils after signing a one-year, $850K deal last offseason. He spent the previous two years mostly with AHL Providence, where he put up 53 goals and 98 points in 122 games and finished with a plus-42 rating.
In Other News...
Oliver Bjorkstrand Is Forcing A Rangers Decision Much Sooner Than Expected
Oliver Bjorkstrand has quickly become one of the more interesting pieces on the Rangers roster after arriving on a one-year deal, giving the club exactly the kind of steady two-way presence it hoped to add. His game has long been built on defensive responsibility and useful secondary offense, and early this season he has shown that profile can still translate into real value even in a limited role.
What makes this start so notable is how much production he has managed to pile up while skating mostly on the fourth line. That kind of return changes the conversation around a player fast, especially for a team that has to weigh lineup fit against the possibility of keeping him around beyond this season. The Rangers do not need to rush a decision, but Bjorkstrand is making it harder to treat this as a simple short-term add. [Read more 🡒]
Rangers Loss To Edmonton Raised A Bigger Contender Question
The Rangers ran into a sharp Edmonton team and came away with a 3-1 loss that felt bigger than one night in the standings. Leon Draisaitl did the damage with two goals, Connor McDavid added another and extended his points streak to 19 games, and the Oilers got the kind of composed goaltending that can tilt a matchup between contenders.
For New York, the result only added to the sense that the margin against elite teams can still be thin. Edmontons goalie was steady throughout, and the Rangers could not find enough offense to keep pace once the game settled into the Oilers rhythm. It was the sort of loss that does not just count as one more defeat, but also invites a harder look at where this team stands when the opponent is built to punish every mistake. [Read more 🡒]
Former Rangers Forward Hits Trouble During His Best Scoring Run
Jack Roslovic has been in the middle of the most productive stretch of his career with the Maple Leafs, which makes the timing of his latest setback all the more frustrating. The former Rangers forward had been driving offense at a career-best pace and was still a key piece for Toronto, sitting near the top of the clubs scoring list while providing the kind of depth production that can swing games for a contender.
Roslovics recent run hit a snag when he missed a game because of a lower-body injury, and the issue came on the heels of a seven-game point streak ending in a loss to the Canadiens. Toronto has leaned on him heavily even as he has dealt with nagging injuries, and his absence against the Devils only underscored how important he has become to the lineup. The bigger question now is how long the Maple Leafs can keep getting by without one of their most efficient finishers if this keeps lingering. [Read more 🡒]