New York Rangers: Shutting down Kevin Shattenkirk is the smart move

New York Rangers defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk hasn’t played in an NHL game since January 18th. A knee injury has kept him sidelined and the Rangers decided it was best to not bring Shattenkirk back this year.

It was a fun opening year for Kevin Shattenkirk while it lasted. The New York Rangers season, as a whole, was quite disappointing and included a lot of tough goodbyes.

For just over half of the season, Shattenkirk shined. He collected 23 points and provided a great boost to the offense from the back end.

When the Rangers lost Shattenkirk, the thought of missing the playoffs certainly started to feel like more of a reality. The loss of Shattenkirk only further convinced Rangers fans that the playoffs weren’t in the cards this year.

While Shattenkirk may have been able to make a return for the end of the season, it’s ultimately the right move to hold him off from doing so until next year.

Not much to play for

The New York Rangers are playing their first meaningless hockey games since 2003-2004, the first such games in Henrik Lundqvist’s career. With that being said, there is a lot of change in strategy.

The Rangers are certainly playing to win their games. While a tank situation may seem to make sense, it hasn’t looked that way in some of their recent efforts.

Instead the Rangers are using the games to get a closer look at some of the prospects in the system. First round picks Lias Andersson and Filip Chytil made their regular season debut this past week against the Washington Capitals and appear to be here for the rest of the year. It’s tough to say the Rangers would be playing those guys during this time of year if they were in the playoff hunt.

For a knee injury like Shattenkirk has, you want to be as careful as possible. The circumstances would be different if the Rangers were in the hunt and could use the boost. However, that’s not the case, and you would instead be risking further injury for garbage points.

Next year can be competitive

If the Rangers play their cards right, they could be in the hunt to bounce back and make the playoffs next year. If that is the case, they will want defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk healthy for all of it.

By shutting down Shattenkirk you all but guarantee that he will be healthy when the season starts in October. The knee will be as strong as possible since he has this time to focus on getting it in tip top shape.

Next: Keeping Hayes over Miller was the right choice

You can say what you will about trying to win every game this year, however it simply does not make sense to rush any injured player back; especially one of your most valuable defensemen.

Home/Editorials