The New York Rangers are placing Adam Fox on long-term injured reserve and expecting him to miss multiple weeks due to a left-shoulder injury, according to two league sources.
The injury was sustained on a hit from Tampa Bay Lightning forward Brandon Hagel that crunched Fox into the boards during the third period of Saturday’s 4-1 loss at Madison Square Garden. It isn’t believed to be long-term or season-threatening, but it will require some time on the shelf. The team plans to label it as week-to-week and reevaluate around Christmas, one source said.
The loss of Fox leaves the Rangers in a precarious position. While the team has largely struggled through the first quarter of the season, the 27-year-old defenseman has been their best and most consistent player.
Fox pushed his point streak to six games with the primary assist on J.T. Miller’s second-period goal Saturday, and he is tied with Artemi Panarin for the team lead with 26 points (three goals and 23 assists) through 27 games. His 10.1 net rating is easily New York’s best, according to Hockey Stat Cards, with Panarin a distant second at 4.5.
Replacing Fox will be virtually impossible given the Rangers’ dearth of puck-moving defensemen. His D partner, Vladislav Gavrikov, is second among the team’s defensemen with 11 points (four goals and seven assists) and has been rock-solid since signing a seven-year, $49 million contract last summer, but he’s limited offensively and best-suited for a stay-at-home assignment. No other New York defensemen has more than five points.
Scott Morrow, who came to the Rangers as part of the July 1 trade that sent talented defenseman K’Andre Miller to the Carolina Hurricanes, is expected to get an extended look in Fox’s absence. The 23-year-old profiles as the most skilled defensemen in New York’s thin pipeline after racking up 94 points (28 goals and 66 assists) across 109 career games at UMass, then another 39 points (13 goals and 26 assists) while earning an AHL all-star nod last season with the Chicago Wolves. But he’s off to a slow start with AHL Hartford, with only three points (one goal and two assists) through 12 games that another league source described as uneven.
The Rangers sent Morrow to Hartford to work on his defensive game and will likely use him in a sheltered five-on-five role, but they’ll need his offensive side to shine if they’re going to get any production out of their back end. He could get the first crack at assuming Fox’s position as the quarterback of a top power-play unit that’s short on alternatives.
Braden Schneider is another defenseman who will be asked to step up. The Rangers have talked for years about wanting to expand the 24-year-old’s role, but he’s been blocked by Fox and others on the right-handed depth chart. Now there’s a clear path to the top four, or perhaps even on the top pair with Gavrikov.
Those are decisions coach Mike Sullivan will have to make in the immediate future. From a big-picture perspective, Fox’s injury could accelerate the clock on hard choices facing team president and general manager Chris Drury.
The Rangers have shown defensive improvement under Sullivan, but their lack of offensive firepower and team speed have become glaring issues. They ranked 28th in the NHL with an average of just 2.63 goals per game entering play Sunday, and now they’re missing one of the league’s best playmaking defensemen.
What looked like a fringe playoff team with Fox could see its postseason hopes fade away without him. Drury will likely allow time to see if the Rangers can weather the storm, but he must recognize that the roster has deteriorated on his watch and needs revamping.
Rather than attempting to keep an unsteady ship afloat, the wise approach might be a reset in which Drury recoups some of the assets he sold off at previous trade deadlines and aims to infuse a depleted organization with young talent. That would require a stamp of approval from owner James Dolan, though, and there’s no telling if he’ll provide Drury that kind of assurance coming off last season’s crash-and-burn.