With Jacob Trouba out with an upper body injury (translation: concussion), we will see Zac Jones make his NHL debut tonight against the Flyers at Madison Square Garden. Jones is one of the Rangers top prospects and he is fresh from winning a national NCAA title with UMass.
Zac Jones will make his NHL debut tonight for #NYR, per Coach Quinn. pic.twitter.com/BIqjYgjRtM
— New York Rangers (@NYRangers) April 22, 2021
Not only that, but Libor Hajek will also be back with Tony Bitetto sitting out. The defense pairings will be K’Andre Miller with Brendan Smith and Hajek will play with Zac Jones, with Jones on the right side where he has played before.
That means after Smith who is 31, the Rangers defense will be made up of three 22 year olds (Fox, Lindgren, Hajek), a 21 year old in Miller and a 20 year old in Jones.
There will be another change to the forward lines with Alexis Lafrenière playing with Mika Zibanejad and Pavel Buchnevich on the first line with Chris Kreider taking his place on the third line with Filip Chytil and Kaapo Kakko.
Igor Shesterkin will get the start in goal as he looks to rebound from the worst loss of his career. He wasn’t awful in allowing six goals to the Islanders, the most in his brief time in the NHL. The Rangers playoffs hopes may be fading, but it’s obvious that David Quinn is going to ride Shesterkin until the end of the season.