Rangers in Difficult Position With Adam Fox Out

This season, Fox has not played quite as well as last season, but he is still playing at a very high level. Though he is known for his offensive abilities, he has also played well defensively while most of the Rangers’ other top defensemen have struggled. He has helped them both at even strength and when he’s gotten ice time on the penalty kill. He doesn’t get caught out of position often, and he reads plays well.

Fox is an elite playmaker and has a lot of assists, but unlike last season, he has struggled to score. The Rangers’ power play has struggled this season as Mika Zibanejad’s timing on his slap shot is off, and Chris Kreider is not scoring as many goals in front of the net. Fox had 33 points on the man advantage last season but has just 16 thus far this season.

While Fox has not been as dominant offensively as he was last season, he still has five goals, 43 assists, and is plus-5 in 58 games. None of the Rangers’ other defensemen have produced much offensively, and Ryan Lindgren was second on the team in points for defensemen with 19, but the Rangers just traded him to the Colorado Avalanche. A down season for Fox is better than most players’ best seasons.

Replacing Fox

Head coach Peter Laviolette inserted left-handed defenseman Zac Jones in the Rangers’ 3-2 loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs on Feb. 28. After struggling early last season, he played well down the stretch but was benched in the playoffs for veteran Erik Gustafsson. Though he is not very big at 5-foot-11 and 190 pounds, he made smart decisions and held his own defensively. This season, he benched Jones after the Rangers acquired blueliner Will Borgen from the Seattle Kraken in exchange for Kaapo Kakko.

Jones showed offensive skill with the Hartford Wolf Pack of the American Hockey League (AHL) and had nine goals and 26 assists in 52 games in 2021-22 and eight goals and 23 assists in 54 games in 2022-23. However, he has just four goals and 21 assists in 98 career NHL games, including one goal and seven assists in 29 games this season.

In the game against the Maple Leafs, both Jones and K’Andre Miller played on the second power-play unit. Miller had nine goals and 34 assists in 79 games in 2022-23 despite rarely playing on the power play, and he had eight goals and 22 assists in 80 games last season.

This season, Miller got off to a bad start, making a lot of giveaways and defensive mistakes, but he has played better since the team acquired Borgen. He has four goals and 10 assists in 53 games. He is an excellent skater with a good wrist shot and could look to contribute more offensively while Fox is out.

For the Rangers Moving Forward

The Rangers do not have any defensemen who can produce offensively the way Fox does, but they will need to get some production from Jones and Miller. Laviolette played five forwards on the power play against the Maple Leafs, but they went 0-3 on the man advantage. They need their special teams units and goalies Igor Shesterkin and Jonathan Quick to step up while their star defenseman is out in order to have a chance to make the playoffs.