This offseason looked a little different for Adam Fox than the previous four.
It wasn’t just because he walked down the aisle and married his Harvard sweetheart and women’s lacrosse counterpart, Tate Green, in July.
The Rangers No. 1 defenseman wasn’t 100 percent healthy at the start of the summer, after aggravating a strained MCL in his right knee, originally sustained in November, in the first round of the playoffs.
Rangers defenseman Adam Fox during training camp on Sept. 19, 2024.
Only the start of his offseason, however, was affected.
Players usually take around three weeks off at the conclusion of a season, but Fox was at the MSG Training Center rehabbing and doing things that would allow him to get back to full strength quicker.
Once that was out of the way, Fox said he was able to do everything normally. He then turned his focus on the usual plan: Getting stronger and faster.
It all was a first for the 26-year-old Fox, who had never dealt with a major injury until his fifth year in the NHL.
“It’s funny because I missed 10 games, but it feels like you’ve missed like 30 when you’re sitting out and everything,” Fox told The Post on Tuesday ahead of the Rangers exhibition game against the Islanders at Madison Square Garden.
It was the second game for the Rangers, but first for the native of Jericho, N.Y.
“I think when people get hurt, you maybe come back and you’re tentative. I think it’s a normal reaction. I think overall, still, the year was good. Obviously, now, that’s in the past and I feel healthy now. Not too worried about any of that stuff anymore.”
Following a knee-on-knee collision with Hurricanes center Sebastian Aho on Nov. 4, which landed Fox on long-term injured reserve for 10 games, the star defenseman was forthcoming about his struggles to regain his feel for the game.
Just as Fox started to look like himself again going into the postseason, an eerily similar leg-crossing clash with Capitals defenseman Nick Jensen in Game 4 of Round 1 aggravated the same knee injury.
Fox stayed off the ice for a bit leading up to the Carolina series, but he didn’t look like himself for the remainder of the playoffs.
Despite being hampered at times by the injury, Fox still finished fourth in voting for the Norris Trophy, awarded to the best defenseman, last season.
Rangers defenseman Adam Fox during training camp on Sept. 19, 2024.
The whole experience wasn’t so much a learning one, but more about understanding what had happened and what can happen in the playoffs.
“I thought he did a good job,” head coach Peter Laviolette said of how Fox handled his injury. “Injuries are tough. You come out and you sit out for a period of time. Not speaking about Adam here, but oftentimes you come back from an injury and you’re cleared, you’re healthy, but there’s still some lingering effects of maybe what’s going on. … Just because somebody’s back doesn’t mean that they’re 100 percent up to speed.
“I do think that he’s moving really well out here. I noticed it in the scrimmage the other day. I noticed it in the skate test and in the scrimmage that he was active and up in the rush and moving really well. Hopefully, rearview mirror stuff and he looks good.”
