Rangers lose Ryan Lindgren to injury before the start of the season

The Rangers may have to begin the season on October 9 without one of their top four defensemen.

Ryan Lindgren is expected to be out for at least several weeks with an upper-body injury that he probably sustained in a revenge brawl with Islanders defenseman Scott Mayfield during Tuesday night's exhibition game at Madison Square Garden.

The fight was initiated by Lindgren, who was seeking retribution for Mayfield's open-ice punch against Filip Chytil. However, Mayfield kept the upper hand and ended up landing a few uppercuts on Lindgren.

While Chytil returned to the game shortly afterwards, Lindgren's evening was already over in the first third of the 6-4 victory.

“It's always tough to lose players,” head coach Peter Laviolette said after practice Wednesday at the MSG Training Center. “A guy like Lindy is tough. He plays the game really hard for us, a really valuable player.”

The problem of letting a defender play with heart and soul according to the all-or-nothing principle like Lindgren does is self-explanatory.

However, the Ranger, who has been around for six years, probably wouldn't be considered one if he didn't play the game his way.

His nickname at Hockey Reference is, for heaven's sake, “The Warrior.”

Due to countless injuries over the years, the 26-year-old defender has yet to play a full 82-game season, despite being a regular on the Rangers' roster since 2020-21.

Of the six games he missed last season, two were one-offs and one lasted four games.

And the season before that? Lindgren missed a total of 19 games due to injury, including an 18-game streak in which he returned for one contest before missing another six games.

This is partly why Lindgren's contract was only extended for one year for $4.5 million in the offseason.

“I don't want to lose players,” Laviolette said when asked if he would be OK with Lindgren struggling in a preseason game. “Nobody wants to lose players, that's never OK. He's an important part of our team, our core, our leadership group. The way he plays the game on the ice makes him an important part. Those parts are hard to replace.”

Because of the news surrounding Lindgren, the chances of Connor Mackey or Ben Harpur making the Rangers roster after training camp have increased – especially since they are both left-handed hitters.

Right-handed defenseman Chad Ruhwedel remains the frontrunner for the seventh defenseman position.

Although he has played on both sides in his career, the Rangers may choose to go with a left-handed hitter.

That leaves Victor Mancini as the odd man out. Mancini, a right-handed shooter, has excelled this preseason and earned another practice with the main group on Wednesday.

“It's training camp right now, so anyone is an option,” Laviolette said. “Like in the regular season, if a player is out, even if it's not training camp, the players in Hartford do what they need to do to be the one mentioned when we need to fill a gap or replace a player. There are a lot of guys that are still working to show they can fill that gap.”