The New York Rangers keep getting hit with injury trouble, and the latest wave is doing more than just thinning out the lineup. It’s also putting the brakes on a move for the center this team badly needs.
That need has been obvious for a while, even before Joe Veleno was knocked out for another couple of months. The Rangers have been searching for a true scoring third-line center, and the shuffle down the middle has only underlined the problem.
Noah Laba has had his best stretch of the season as the fourth-line center, helped by moving Will Cuylle to center. The idea was to get Laba rolling before sliding him back into the 3C spot, which happened pretty quickly.
That left Luke Glendening as the 4C for now, and that’s not enough.
Cuylle in the middle was always a temporary fix. Laba looks better suited for the fourth line even once Veleno comes back, and a line with Jaro Chmelar could give the Rangers a solid fourth unit, the kind that brings back memories of Dominic Moore and Brian Boyle together.
The problem is that Laba doesn’t have the offense to handle the 3C role right now, and Cuylle was never the long-term answer there. Something has to give.
The snag is on defense, where the Rangers’ injury situation is now blocking the kind of trade they need up front. Igor Shesterkin is done for the season.
Joonas Korpisalo just came back from a foot infection. Sean Durzi and Alberts Smits are both on IR.
James Reimer was banged up after 20 minutes in a Rangers uniform and then waived. Adam Sykora started the season on IR.
The injury list keeps growing, and it’s forcing the Rangers to keep bodies around on the blue line instead of using them as trade leverage.
Right now, the Rangers are already leaning on their 7D, Scott Morrow, and their 8D, Matthew Robertson, with Marc Del Gaizo serving as the 9D for extra insurance. On paper, that can work.
Braden Schneider has moved up to the second pair with Marcus Pettersson, which helps stabilize things. But Schneider is also the club’s best trade chip if the Rangers want to go out and get a center.
That’s the bind: the injuries on defense are a problem, and they’re also preventing the Rangers from solving the bigger issue in the middle of the ice.
There is at least one encouraging sign in all of this. Morrow looks like an upgrade on Schneider on the third pair, which means the Rangers may not be left scrambling if a center deal eventually happens.
The bigger issue is timing. If the team can stay a little above .500 and keep itself afloat, it should still be in position to improve the roster later.
For now, though, that door is closed.
Some will argue the Rangers could simply move a defenseman to his off-side for the short term, and that’s a reasonable thought. But it doesn’t solve the real issue, because the system doesn’t currently have a ready-made replacement if Schneider is moved.
Drew Fortescue is probably the most NHL-ready of the group, but he still needs development time and is better off in Hartford. Vincent Iorio was rough in his NHL stint last year, which likely explains why Del Gaizo got the call instead.
So the Rangers are stuck waiting. The injuries are forcing patience, whether anyone likes it or not.
That’s not exactly what fans wanted, especially with Chris Drury’s track record still fresh in mind, but he did have a solid offseason and deserves a little more runway here. He can’t do much when a third of the starting defense is hurt and there’s no timeline for their return.
A trade for a center is still coming, one under 30 and with term. It just isn’t coming right now. The blue line injuries have made sure of that.
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The concern is not that Zibanejad has lost his touch. His shot velocity is still among the leagues best, which makes the drop in attempts even more notable, because the threat of his release has long been part of what makes New Yorks attack harder to defend. When he is firing less often, the Rangers lose some of that unpredictability, and for a team that leans on him to tilt the ice, that is a scoring issue they cannot simply overlook. [Read more 🡒]