Who sits come playoff time?

Going into the Stanley Cup Playoffs, the New York Rangers have a surplus of players on the roster.   Barring injuries, a number of players will have to sit out and that will mean tough decisions for Gerard Gallant and the coaching staff.  It was further complicated when the Rangers announced that they had called up seven players from the Hartford Wolf Pack.

The forwards

The Rangers are locked into their top six forwards so the healthy scratches will come out of the bottom six.  Of those players, the absolute locks are Barclay Goodrow, Alexis Lafreniere, Kaapo Kakko and Filip Chytil.  That leave only two slots open and six players vying for them.

Of the six, the frontrunners have to be Kevin Rooney and Dryden Hunt.  Hunt is a favorite of Coach Gallant’s and he certainly made a case to play with his dazzling game winning goal against the Capitals.

Rooney brings a lot to the table with his penalty killing ability and his physical play though he slipped a bit in the faceoff circle, winning only 44.8% of his draws, the worst percentage of his career.  His biggest problem is scoring as he ended the season without a goal in his last 37 games, since December 7.  When Rooney got in the face of Evgeny Kuznetsov at the end of Friday’s game, he was sending a message not only to the Caps but to the coaching staff.

Whether Ryan Reaves plays will depend on the opposition.  He’s a defensive liability, but his very presence on the bench keeps other team in line.  It’s why he was benched for seven of the Vegas Golden Knights’ playoffs games last season.

Julien Gauthier, Jonny Brodzinski and Greg McKegg will all play only if there are injuries.  Who gets the first call is up to the coaches and what they are looking for from specific players.

The wild card when it comes to the forwards is Tyler Motte who suffered a season ending injury on April 7 against the Penguins.  We don’t know how bad it is, but there has been no indication that he is at all close to returning.  If Motte can play, he slots into the fourth line as a penalty killer and would further muddle the fourth line situation.  If Motte cannot play, it would be a blow to lose the high energy forward for the entire playoffs.

Defense

Five of the six defensemen are set with Patrik Nemeth looking to get the first nod on the third pair with Braden Schneider.  While Nemeth has been the recipient of much criticism from the fans, he has rebounded from personal issues that had affected his play.  He also played 10 playoff games last season with the Colorado Avalanche so he brings postseason experience to the table.  Considering that Jacob Trouba is the only defenseman of the top five to have any playoff experience (27 games with Winnipeg), that is an important consideration.

That leaves Justin Braun and Libor Hajek as the main replacements with Braun the obvious choice to be the first.  Braun has more playoff experience (100 games) than anyone on the Rangers.  Hajek did not have a good game when he started against Montreal so he won’t see any action unless the defense is hard hit by injuries and he may have fallen behind Zac Jones on the depth chart.

Hartford call-ups

The Rangers called up forwards Tim Gettinger, Lauri Pajuniemi along with defensemen Zac Jones, Jarred Tinordi, Nils Lundkvist and Matthew Robertson as well as goalie Keith Kinkaid.   It’s been a past practice for the team to promote prospects for the postseason so that they get to experience what the playoffs are all about.

It would take decimation of the roster for any of those players to see any action with Zac Jones and Jarred Tinordi the two who would have the best chance of seeing any action. Tinordi has played 13 playoff games in his career including four games with the Bruins last season.

If there is  any issue with Igor Shesterkin that would require Alexandar Georgiev to play, then Kinkaid is the natural third string goalie.  Kinkaid started two playoff games against Tampa for the Devils in 2018 and was not good, allowing four goals in one start and getting pulled after allowing five goals in just 33 minutes.