Rangers put D Carson Soucy on IR, recall Connor Mackey
The New York Rangers put defenseman Carson Soucy on injured reserve Sunday morning, a few hours after he left their 6-1 victory against the Pittsburgh Penguins with an upper-body injury.
Connor Mackey was recalled from Hartford of the American Hockey League and will be on the roster when the Rangers host the Washington Capitals on Sunday night.
Soucy crashed into the boards awkwardly while attempting a hit on Penguins forward Rickard Rakell early in the second period. He went into the boards head-first and was down on the ice briefly. But after consulting with a trainer on the ice, he skated gingerly to the locker room under his own power. The Rangers ruled him out for the rest of the game at the start of the third period.
Soucy was limited to 6:35 of ice time and 10 shifts before the injury, and the Rangers played the last 36-plus minutes with five defensemen.
“It’s never easy,” Adam Fox said of losing a fellow defenseman mid-game. “But sometimes it simplifies as D-men. You know you’re not going to do too much because you don’t want to get caught out there or anything. Sometimes, mentally, it helps to know you’re keeping short shifts, keep it simple and trying to get it up to the forwards and playing there.”
The 31-year-old played mostly on the second pairing during the first three games this season. He scored a third-period goal that gave the Rangers a 2-0 lead against the Buffalo Sabres on Thursday, a game they won 4-0.
Soucy came to the Rangers on March 7 from the Vancouver Canucks in exchange for a 2025 third-round draft pick. The 6-foot-5, 208-pound defenseman has a comfort level with Borgen, with whom he played during their time with the Seattle Kraken. His contract, carrying an average annual value of $3.25 million, runs through this season; he can become an unrestricted free agent on July 1.
The Rangers are already dealing with several other early-season injuries – most notably to top-six center Vincent Trocheck. The Blueshirts placed Trocheck on IR Saturday and listed him as week to week with an upper-body injury sustained in the first period of the win at Buffalo.
Two other top-six forwards, J.T. Miller and Artemi Panarin, are still finding their legs after preseason injuries.
Carson Soucy injury creates Rangers opportunity for Matthew Robertson, Connor Mackey
Mackey is a 29-year-old who’s in his third season with the Rangers organization after signing as a free agent on July 1, 2023, then was re-signed to a two-year extension on March 1, 2024.
He’s played three games with the Blueshirts, one in 2023-24 and two last season. Mackey has played 110 games with Hartford in the past two seasons, putting up 35 points (eight goals, 27 assists), and had no points and one shot in the Wolf Pack’s 2-1 opening-night loss to the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins on Saturday night.
The undrafted free agent has 42 games of NHL experience with the Calgary Flames, Arizona Coyotes and Rangers. The rugged defender has 11 points (four goals, seven assists) and 80 penalty minutes in the NHL.
There’s no guarantee Mackey will dress for the game against the Capitals. Matthew Robertson made the Rangers as the extra defenseman, and was a healthy scratch in each of their first three games.
So why Mackey and not Scott Morrow, their best defense prospect. Two reasons.
One is that Soucy is a lefty shooter, as is Mackey; Morrow is right-handed.
But more important is the issue of money. Mackey earns $775,000 at the NHL level, meaning that he fits under the Rangers’ salary cap — they began the day with less than $825,000 in available space, according to PuckPedia. Morrow has a salary-cap hit of just under $917,000 — too much to be recalled now.
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