Kreider Placed on IR, Rempe Recalled, & Other Morning Skate Notes

An eventful morning from the Rangers practice facility as a number of updates have taken place. For starters, recent waiver wire pickup Arthur Kaliyev is with the team and participating in morning skate, a good indication that he will not only be an option for his NYR debut tonight, but could even get top six or nine minutes. 

In addition to that, Chris Kreider has been placed on the Injured Reserve retroactive to Sunday, leaving him unavailable for the rest of the week. Matt Rempe, who was just sent back down to Hartford, will return to the Rangers roster to serve the final game remaining on his eight game suspension. 

Larry Brooks also brought up a good point. If Kreider has been clearly dealing with an injury for a number of weeks now, why did the Rangers make a whole thing about “healthy” scratching him? Between including his name in the trade memo and now this, you really have to wonder why he’s getting this cold shoulder type of treatment from the franchise he’s dedicated his career to up to this point. Even if the intent is to move on from him down the road, none of this is really helping increase his value. 

With Kreider out of the lineup, the top power play unit has a different look as both Alexis Lafrenière and Mika Zibanejad are a part of it. Vincent Trocheck now slots into the net front role with Zibanejad as the left bumper and Lafrenière on the right side. 

Amongst all of this, Igor Shesterkin was also an active participant in the morning skate. However, Louis Domingue is still with the team and Jonathan Quick was the first one off the ice, indicating Shesterkin is still a ways away from returning to the lineup. 

According to Newsday's Colin Stephenson, the Rangers will go with the same lines from the last game against the Chicago Blackhawks, so we'll have to wait to see Kaliyev make his Blueshirts debut.