Rangers’ injuries opening door for others to provide depth, fill void

TORONTO — The Rangers have had their depth tested early amid multiple injuries just six games into the 2025-26 season.

With second-line center Vincent Trocheck on long-term injured reserve after suffering an upper-body injury, in addition to defenseman Carson Soucy’s injured reserve designation with his own upper-body injury, the Blueshirts were forced to make personnel changes to accommodate.

Players like Matthew Robertson, Juuso Parssinen, Jonny Brodzinski and now rookie Scott Morrow have all been called upon to fill the voids.

“It certainly shows us what we have and who’s capable of doing what, who can play up the lineup,” head coach Mike Sullivan said in front of a crowded Toronto media brigade ahead of the Rangers 2-1 overtime loss to Maple Leafs on Thursday night. “Any time guys get injured, it’s going to provide opportunities for others. When you get in those situations as a team, in my experience being in this league as long as I have, is that every team tends to go through that. Those opportunities, some players step up, and they take advantage, and that’s one avenue to push a way onto a roster, for example. I think that there’s opportunity that presents itself when teams go through a little bit of the injury bug, so to speak.

“Guys will be asked to play more significant roles. Now, it’s up to the players to perform for us. We get an opportunity to see guys participate in those roles to see what we have.”

The decision to recall Morrow came in the wake of Will Borgen’s inability to practice on Wednesday due to a lower-body injury. He was considered a game-time decision ahead of the Rangers’ matchup in Toronto, but Borgen ultimately dressed and played.

Morrow wasn’t an option due to cap restraints when Soucy first went down.

Putting Trocheck on LTIR, however, freed up the space to recall him just in case Borgen was unavailable on this road trip.

“I think he’s a big, strong kid,” Sullivan said of Morrow. “I think he skates well, he sees the ice pretty well. I think he has the ability to help a transition game because he sees the ice. He can make a first pass. He’s not just an off the glass and out guy. He’s pretty good along the offensive blue line. He can get pucks down through layers of screens and traffic, and that, I think, is such an important skill in today’s game for defensemen, just the ability to get pucks down through layers of shot blockers. He’s shown that ability. So those are some of the things that we were that we saw throughout the course of training camp and the exhibition games.”

Soucy skated in a red noncontact jersey during morning skate on Thursday.

Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reported Thursday that Brennan Othmann, who the Rangers selected with pick No. 16 in 2021, is drawing interest from teams around the NHL.

The 22-year-old wing, who failed to make the Rangers roster out of training camp, could benefit from a fresh start.