Adam Fox, the Rangers’ No. 1 defenseman and co-leading scorer, is heading to long-term injured reserve with an upper-body injury, a league source confirmed on Sunday.
The news was first reported by The Athletic.
Fox was injured in the third period of Saturday’s 4-1 loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning when he was checked into the boards by Brandon Hagel. He was slow to get up and was hunched over as he skated to the bench before heading to the locker room.
The loss of Fox, the Norris Trophy winner in 2021 as the NHL’s top defenseman, is a huge blow to the Rangers. He leads the team in ice time, averaging 23 minutes, 50 seconds per game; plays on the top defense pair with Vladislav Gavrikov and serves as the point man on the Rangers’ first power-play unit.
Coming off a lackluster 2024-25 season, Fox has been having a nice bounce-back year. He has three goals and 23 assists in 27 games and is tied with Artemi Panarin for the team lead in scoring. He has one goal and seven assists on the power play, meaning he’s scored or assisted on eight of the Rangers’ 13 power-play goals.
Going on LTIR means Fox, 27, will need to miss at least 10 games and 24 days. He won’t be able to return before the NHL’s Christmas break, which begins Dec. 24. The Rangers have 12 games before the break. If Fox needs to be out much longer than that, his chances of making the U.S. Olympic team could be affected.
Coach Mike Sullivan will have to find someone to run the point on the power play, which is 12th in the league, connecting at 21.3% (13-for-61). The Rangers had a power play late in the third period of Saturday’s game and used a unit composed of five forwards, with Panarin running the point. It’s hard to imagine Sullivan would be comfortable with a five-forward unit for an extended period, though.
Rookie Scott Morrow, who has played most of the season in the AHL but who has been up with the Rangers the last two weeks to fill in for an injured Will Borgen, is an offensive-minded defenseman who has been a power-play point man at the college and AHL level. Morrow, who was acquired from Carolina in the K’Andre Miller trade, had 28 goals and 94 points in three seasons of college hockey at UMass and last season had 13 goals and 39 points in 52 games for the AHL Chicago Wolves before getting called up to Carolina. He played 14 games for the Hurricanes last season and four for the Rangers this season.
Putting Fox on LTIR will allow the Rangers to exceed the salary cap by up to $3.8 million, so general manager Chris Drury could investigate trade possibilities for a replacement.
Notes & quotes: The Rangers returned goalie Dylan Garand to AHL Hartford and called up goalie Spencer Martin.
Colin Stephenson covers the Rangers for Newsday. He has spent more than two decades covering the NHL and just about every sports team in the New York metropolitan area.