It's been a season of transition on the fly for the New York Rangers.
One year removed from winning the Presidents' Trophy as the most accomplished regular season team in the NHL and making it to the Eastern Conference Final, they find themselves jockeying for the final wild card spot with seven games left.
General manager Chris Drury shipped out a handful of pieces to reface the club's identity, including captain Jacob Trouba, longtime top-pair defenseman Ryan Lindgren and skill forwards Filip Chytil and Kakko Kakko.
In doing so, he alleviated room to call up 2021 first-round pick Brennan Othmann and sign 2023 first-round pick Gabe Perreault.
The Rangers have hit many speed bumps to put them in a position of desperation late in their campaign. When things have gone awry, head coach Peter Laviolette has shuffled lines, leaning more on veterans than young talents with high-ceiling potential.
“The younger generation now, they all bring 1,000 skills,” leading point-scorer Artemi Panarin said to the New York Post. “The young players have confidence, they skate, they work for it.
“I know I am not a coach but I think that players have to play. You can’t expect them to grow if they are playing three minutes a night. If a younger player shows he can contribute, he needs that chance.
“It helps everybody. It helps the team.”
Perreault made his NHL debut on Wednesday. Laviolette started him on a line with veteran power forward J.T. Miller and Alexis Lafreniere, who he deemed as a "like-minded" player.
In his 13:08 of ice time, Perreault was aggressive on pucks and registered three shots on goal.
-1742740506-q80.webp "Job not done for Aussies aiming for clean sweep of world champs")
