Report: Sammy Blais out for the season; Rangers must find a top six RW
NY Post’s Larry Brooks is reporting that the New York Rangers forward Sammy Blais is done for the season with a torn ACL.
Blais, 25, was injured by PK Subban in Sunday’s 4-3 shootout victory.
Sammy Blais done for the season
In the third period of the Rangers 4-3 win over the Devils, Blais and Subban went to the corner to retrieve the puck. The Devils defenseman appeared to stick out his skate causing Blais to go hard into the boards leaving him writhing in pain. Blais needed help off the ice and could not put an ounce of pressure on his right leg.
Considering the history of Subban using his feet on three separate occasions starting with Ryan Reaves in the preseason, the NHL DoPS was certainly going to review this one, right?
Wrong. Apparently this was incidental contact and not worthy of a review.
Subban had been fined twice for similar slew-footing incidents against the Flames’ Milan Lucic and Ducks’ Trevor Zegras ($5,000 and $15,000 respectively).
New York Rangers need to bring in RW help
The Blueshirts, who traded away Pavel Buchnevich in a cap saving move will need to address the lack of depth on RW.
Sammy Blais was part of the return from the Blues for Buchnevich but he is now gone. The Rangers have self-exiled prospect Vitali Kravtsov in the KHL. From what I was told, no amount of coaxing or promises is likely to bring him back, but the circumstances are dire so it is possible.
If not, the Rangers are going to have to find scoring help.
Maybe they were not interested in trading for the 34 year-old Phil Kessel before, but he’s the most readily available top six NHL forward.
Would the Rangers even consider Vladimir Tarasenko? The 29 year-old still has another year on a deal that hits the cap at $7.5 million, so it is unlikely. That is unless the Blues retain salary or a third party gets involved.
The Golden Knights have Reilly Smith, and will need to shave cap space themselves. Could the Rangers get him out earlier than the deadline?
Chris Drury has to do something – and soon.
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