The Rangers have room to maneuver so Keith Kinkaid could be the club’s alternate starter to Igor Shesterkin even if Kinkaid spends most of his time on the taxi squad while Alexandar Georgiev dresses regularly as the club’s backup.
A need for an alternate will arise this weekend with back-to-back games in Philadelphia on Saturday and Washington on Sunday.
Shesterkin, who returned to action for Thursday’s 8-3 win at Philadelphia after missing 10 games rehabbing the groin strain he sustained March 4, would not be expected to go back-to-back for the first time this season and the second time in his NHL career.
Georgiev is 5-5-2 with a 2.92 goals-against average and .897 save percentage in 13 starts plus one relief outing. Kinkaid is 3-1-1 in five starts, with an overall 2.22 GAA and .908 save percentage, including a pair of relief appearances since he was recalled in the wake of Shesterkin’s injury.
Kinkaid has been on the NHL roster for 20 days (Thanks, CapFriendly). Having cleared waivers at the start of the season, he is immune to being placed on waivers again until he reaches 31 days on the Rangers’ roster.
So it will be rather simple to promote the 31-year-old Kinkaid from the taxi squad for only those games he starts. Unless he starts 11 of the club’s final 24 games, there would be no issue … and if there is a reason he is needed to start that many, there would be another more substantial issue to address.
If the Rangers are up against it on the 23-man roster by carrying three goaltenders for game days, they could dispatch Shesterkin to the taxi squad while dressing Georgiev as Kinkaid’s backup. Shesterkin is waivers-exempt, while Georgiev would require waivers in order to be sent to the taxi squad or Hartford.
The roster situation will only last through April 11, however, as roster limits cease to exist following the April 12 trade deadline.
The AHL Wolf Pack shifted 22-year-old Morgan Barron from left wing to center for Thursday afternoon’s 4-2 victory over Providence, in which the Cornell product scored his sixth and seventh goals in Hartford’s 11th game. Pivots Jonny Brodzinksi and Gabriel Fontaine were both sidelined with injuries. The organization also wanted to get a look at the 6-foot-2, 210-pounder in the middle after he had spent the year on the flank.
If the Rangers can accommodate his cap hit of a full-season $925,000 plus an $850,000 bonus package after Vitali Kravtsov is added to the roster, Barron would be a leading candidate for promotion once the roster max has been lifted.
While there is no official word regarding the status of David Quinn, who has been sidelined since being placed on the COVID-19 protocol list on March 17, it appears as if the head coach would not be eligible to return behind the bench until Sunday afternoon’s match against the Capitals. Hence, Kris Knoblauch, 4-1, will coach the Rangers on Saturday afternoon in Philadelphia.
Assistant coaches Jacques Martin and Greg Brown were released from COVID-19 protocol and rejoined the Rangers on Thursday. Gord Murphy, who had been filling in as an assistant, returned to Hartford to coach the Wolf Pack on Thursday.
Assistant coach David Oliver remained in protocol. It is believed that Martin and Brown were on the list as close contacts of Quinn and Oliver, who are deduced to have contracted the virus.
