New York Rangers Monday morning notes

The New York Rangers had Sunday off following their dramatic come from behind win over the Arizona Coyotes on Saturday night.  While their biggest offensive output of the season resulted in a big 7-3 win, it’s hard to forget the Blueshirts’ awful start in a game that could have gotten away from them.

The only roster move for the team involved Jarred Tinordi who was placed on waivers.  That move is an obvious result of the play of Braden Schneider who, for now, has won a starting job.  With Schneider in the lineup they still had Libor Hajek and Tinordi as spare defensemen and in order to send Tinordi to Hartford he has to clear waivers.

Tinordi is signed through next season with an annual cap hit of $900,000.

There were more taxi squad moves as Jonny Brodzinski, Tim Gettinger, Anthony Greco, Zac Jones and Tarmo Reunanen were all returned to the Wolf Pack.

That leaves Morgan Barron as the only player on the Rangers’ taxi squad.  One reason that there are so many moves to and from that unit is that players can only spend 20 days on the taxi squad before they are dissolved at the All-Star break.

Another reason is the COVID-19 protocol and the drastically reduced number of players who have been testing positive. Only three NHL players have been added to the list in the last three days. Also, considering the number of Rangers players who were on the list and are in the grace period, the odds that they will need reinforcements are greatly reduced.

We will see if they add forwards to the list with the injuries to Filip Chytil and Kaapo Kakko. Kakko didn’t play on Saturday and Chytil left with a lower body injury after playing only four minutes. Gerard Gallant called the “day to day” after the game.

They play the Los Angeles Kings Monday night at 7pm at the Garden.

A trade possibility?

The Rangers are supposed to be in the hunt for defenseman Jakob Chychrun of the Coyote.  On Hockey Night in Canada on Saturday, Sportsnets’ Jeff Marek said the following:

“They do have that [offer] from one team in the NHL as we speak now, essentially two former first-round players and a first-round draft pick. That auction though does continue. Los Angeles, Anaheim, Boston, Florida, who may very well be the team to watch through all of this. The Rangers as well are in, they’ve offered a package that includes Vitali Kravtsov, and the Columbus Blue Jackets interested in the services of Jakob Chychrun as well.”

Chychrun is 24-years old and is signed through 2024-25 for an AAV of $4.6 million. He has two goals and 10 points this season after scoring 18 goals and 41 points last season.  He’s a left shot defenseman and was born and raised in Florida.   He didn’t raise any eyebrows on Saturday night when he played over 19 minutes, finished with a plus/minus of -1 with three shots on goal.  He was on ice for two of the three Coyotes’ goals.

Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet also confirmed the Rangers’ interest in his latest podcast.

Recognition for Kreider

The Hockey News named Chris Kreider their first star of the week.   They cited his five goals and seven points in three games as the reason.  They also called him a center.  That kind of mistake from a publication called The Hockey News?

At any rate, it’s nice to see him get the recognition though it took him tying Alex Ovechkin for the league lead in goal scoring to break through.

In another article, the website listed Alexandar Georgiev as one of the “Top 5 Goalies to Watch”  at the NHL trade deadline.  Others on the list are veterans Braden Holtby, Marc-Andre Fleury, Joonas Korpisalo and Semyon Varlamov.

There’s no doubt we will be hearing more of the same as the March 21 deadline draws closer.

Jacksonville Icemen controversy

Allegations of racism are dominating hockey headlines as defenseman Jacob Panetta of the Jacksonville Icemen of the ECHL was released after making “monkey gestures” at South Carolina Stingrays forward Jordan Subban.

It came during a brawl on Saturday night and video of the incident was widely shared on social media, particularly by Subban’s brother, P.K.Subban of the Devils.

Panetta was first suspended, then released by the Icemen and he sent a tweet saying that his gesture was no intended as a racist gesture, that he was doing a “tough guy bodybuilder” gesture that was misconstrued.

There’s been no follow up since Panetta’s statement.  He is still released and his hockey future is in doubt.  The NHL released the following tweet on Sunday.

The Jacksonville Icemen are the ECHL affiliate of the New York Rangers, though there are no Rangers properties or prospects playing for the team.  Defenseman Zach Berzolla is under contract to the Hartford Wolf Pack and played five games in the AHL this season.

Normally, there would be more players from the Rangers organization in the ECHL, but with the Taxi Squad and COVID, the Wolf Pack have been hard pressed to field a complete roster.

There has been no statement from the Rangers about the situation regarding their farm team.