Zuccarello Projected to Return in Second Week of March
The Rangers' leading scorer is out of the lineup for 7-9 games.
The trade deadline is on March 5th at 3 PM EST and it is going to be interesting to see if the Rangers make a move to try and temporarily replace the production of their leading scorer who is now out of the lineup with a broken hand.
The 3-4 week time frame for @zuccarello36 is from the time of the injury last Sunday #NYR
— New York Rangers (@NYRangers) February 21, 2014 Although the diagnosis could have been worse losing the diminutive playmaker for any length of time is a huge loss for the Rangers. According to Andrew Gross Mats Zuccarello's worst case scenario is missing somewhere between seven and nine games for the Rangers because the timeline for his injury started when when he was in Sochi. In other words, Zuccarello will not be missing 3-4 weeks of NHL time and should be back sometime in the second week of March... so this is bad news but it certainly could be worse.
The question now becomes what do the Rangers do to try and replace Zuccarello in the lineup? Do they call someone up from the AHL? Do they make a deal a little earlier than they had planned to to add some more scoring? The Olympic roster freeze lifts on 11:59 PM this Sunday, I guess we're all just going to have to wait and play the guessing game about what Sather and the Rangers organization do with Zuccarello out for 7-9 of the last 23 games of the season.
Rangers' blueliner Marc Staal also missed practice today with back spasms, he was given a day of rest.
What are your thoughts on this guys and gals? What do you think the Rangers should do with Zuke out of the lineup? Roll with the team they have and call someone up from the AHL or should they start making their moves early and bring in some depth scoring? Let me know what you think in the comments.
Let's go Rangers.
