


They remained on top of the hockey world by points percentage at .775 off a 15-3-2 getaway that nobody but nobody envisioned. The first two months of Peter Laviolette’s tenure behind the bench has been a Broadway smash hit.
But there is also the sense that the Rangers are kind of walking a tightrope without a safety net. Operating in the fourth year of this flat-cap cycle, this is hardly unique to the Blueshirts, but it seems as if the team is like a typical American family that is one major medical emergency away from catastrophe.
The Rangers surely survived over the 10 games for which Adam Fox was unavailable while on long-term injured reserve in the aftermath of the leg-on-leg hit he took from Sebastian Aho in the first period of the Nov. 2 match at the Garden against Carolina, going 7-2-1 after indeed winning that one.
They also simultaneously have gone 7-2-1 without Filip Chytil, who left that same game with a suspected concussion and has still not been on the ice with the team. The center has been skating on his own but there is no timetable for his return.
And now the Blueshirts will play for a considerable portion of the season without Kaapo Kakko, placed on LTIR in the aftermath of the left leg injury he sustained with 4:47 remaining in the second period of Monday’s defeat to the Sabres.
You might not be all that wrong in suggesting that the Blueshirts, who met the Red Wings at the Garden on Wednesday in Fox’s return, won’t miss Kakko all that much off the first 20 games in which the Finn recorded just two goals and one assist while progressively becoming less and less visible in the attacking zone.
But keep in mind that Kakko, who opened the season as the third wheel on the first-line Mika Zibanejad-Chris Kreider connection, had been on a quasi-checking line with Will Cuylle and Nick Bonino the last nine games. The job description kind of changed. And regardless of his flaws, Kakko has always been aware and effective on the defensive side of the puck.
He is a legit NHL player and the prospect of reuniting the winger with erstwhile center Chytil upon No. 72’s return held promise for dramatic improvement on the offensive side of things. Now, though, that’s not quite the case.
Kakko has been replaced by Jonny Brodzinski, the 30-year-old with the running motor who was leading the AHL in scoring (11-14-25 in 16 games) upon his recall from Hartford, but has a total of three goals and two assists in 45 prior matches with the Blueshirts.

If he were a baseball player, he’d be a Quadruple-A guy.
Brodzinski is also earning $762,500. The Rangers will get more than they pay for in this case. He is also one of nine players on the roster making $828,333 or less, with only two (Will Cuylle and Braden Schneider) on entry-level contracts.
This has been life for Chris Drury, the general manager who went into the free-agent season with approximately $10.3 million of space to fill seven roster spots, including those held by restricted free agents K’Andre Miller and Alexis Lafreniere.
He pulled it off, getting Bonino, Blake Wheeler, Gustafsson and Jonathan Quick to sign for contracts proximate to the league minimum. All have contributed to this getaway.
But Drury and the Rangers will be in even a tighter bind if this run of injuries continues. There is some depth in the organization up front, but much of it is represented by youngsters such as Brennan Othmann, Brett Berard and Adam Sykora who still need to ripen before they will become Broadway-bound. No team in the league can simply reach into the AHL and pluck a ready-for-prime-time Top-Sixer.
The Rangers may need a right wing, regardless of Kakko’s status as the season progresses. Wheeler has upped his game over the last two weeks, but there is a long way to go from now to the second or third week of June for a 37-year-old.
And they may need a center depending upon Chytil’s health. It seems almost impossible to count on the 24-year-old center, who is believed to have sustained four concussions over a career in which he has been sidelined 10 different times.
It appears as if the Rangers might have around $2 million in space. The number will be impacted by the length of Kakko’s and Chytil’s stay on LTIR. But it is not likely that the team will be able to make a dramatic splash at the deadline.
Instead, the approach to the deadline will likely mirror the approach into the free-agent market. Drury will be judicious if for no other reason than he will have little choice.
But at least Fox is back.
That represents the week’s good news.
So far.