The Rangers may have to start the season on Oct. 9 without one of their top-four defensemen.
Ryan Lindgren is expected to be sidelined for at least a few weeks with an upper-body injury, which he presumably sustained in a retaliatory fight with Islanders defenseman Scott Mayfield in Tuesday night’s exhibition game at Madison Square Garden.
The Rangers will be without Ryan Lindgren to start the 2024 season.
The bout was initiated by Lindgren, who sought retribution for Mayfield’s open-ice hit on Filip Chytil. Mayfield, however, got the better of the tussle — landing a couple uppercuts on Lindgren at the end.
While Chytil returned to the game shortly, Lindgren’s night was over in the first period of the 6-4 victory.
“It’s always tough losing players,” head coach Peter Laviolette said after practice on Wednesday at MSG Training Center. “A guy like Lindy is tough. He plays the game really hard for us, really valuable piece.”
The problem with having a heart-and-soul defenseman play the all-or-nothing way that Lindgren does is self-explanatory.
Though the six-year Ranger probably wouldn’t be considered as such if he didn’t play the game the way that he does.
His nickname on Hockey Reference is listed as “The Warrior” for crying out loud.
Lindgren (not pictured) sustained the injury after a tussle with the Islanders’ Scott Mayfield (24).
Due to a myriad of injuries over the years, the 26-year-old blueliner has yet to play a full 82-game season despite being consistently on the Rangers roster since 2020-21.
Of the six games he missed last season, two were one-offs and there was one four-game stretch.
The season before that? Lindgren missed 19 total games due to injury, including an 18-game stretch where he came back for one contest before he was sidelined another six games.
This is partially why Lindgren was only extended a year this offseason at $4.5 million.
“I don’t want to lose players,” Laviolette said when asked if he was OK with having Lindgren fight in a preseason game. “Nobody wants to lose players, it’s never OK. He’s an important piece to our team, our core, our leadership group. The way he plays the game on the ice, he’s an important part. Those pieces are hard to replace.”
Amid the Lindgren news, the chances of Connor Mackey or Ben Harpur making the Rangers roster out of training camp have increased — especially since they’re both left-handed.
Rangers defenseman Ryan Lindgren (55) and New York Islanders defenseman Scott Mayfield (24) fight.
Rangers defenseman Ryan Lindgren (55) and New York Islanders defenseman Scott Mayfield (24) fight.
Right-handed defenseman Chad Ruhwedel is still the frontrunner for the seventh defenseman role.
Even though he’s played both sides in his career, the Rangers may opt to prioritize a lefty.
That all leaves Victor Mancini as a dark horse. Mancini, a righty shot, has stood out this preseason and earned another practice with the main group on Wednesday.
“It’s training camp right now, so everybody is an option,” Laviolette said. “Like the regular season, when a guy goes down, even when it’s not training camp, players in Hartford are doing what they need to do to be the guy that gets their name mentioned when we do need to fill a hole or replace a player. There’s a lot of guys that are still working to try and show that they can fill that spot.”
