Ryan Lindgren is out for a few weeks due to an upper-body injury from Tuesday’s game against the Islanders.
Coach Peter Laviolette shared that Lindgren got hurt after a fight with Scott Mayfield, who had hit Filip Chytil earlier in the game. Chytil came back to play and should be fine.
Lindgren, 26, often deals with injuries but managed to play 76 games last season despite not being fully healthy. His performance was the worst of his career, showing a -3.0 relative CF% and 48.6 xGF%. When fit, he’s great at defense and usually plays around 20 minutes per game without hurting possession stats.
Now, Zachary Jones has a big chance ahead of him. The young defender will start in the top-four lineup after mostly sitting out last season. In his limited NHL time, he has scored 17 points in 69 games but had a -10 rating.
Changes in Defense Lineup:
Jones might replace Lindgren alongside Adam Fox directly, which would let K’Andre Miller keep his own pairing behind Fox. Fans might wonder if this change will affect the team’s defense strength early in the season.
With Lindgren out, another left-shot defenseman expected to start with AHL’s Hartford Wolf Pack will now join the NHL roster for third-pairing duties instead of Jones. Connor Mackey seems like a likely candidate as he skated with Fox during Wednesday’s practice.
Mackey played just one game for Rangers last year but has appeared in 40 NHL games overall. For Hartford last season, he scored 11 points and had an impressive +12 rating over 44 matches.
What do you think about these changes?
