Of all the positions in a lineup, a loss at center could arguably be the most troublesome for the Rangers.
The Blueshirts might have to confront that possibility after Joe Veleno suffered a lower-body injury early in the first period of their 4-2 win over the Mammoth on Sunday night.
On just his third shift, Veleno went down awkwardly along the boards in a tangle with Clayton Keller. After struggling to get to the bench, the 26-year-old center consulted a team trainer before requiring assistance off the ice and to the dressing room.
Veleno didn’t put any weight on his right leg as he made his way. He didn’t return for the rest of the game.
“No [update],” head coach Mike Sullivan said. “He’s being evaluated right now for a lower-body injury. I’ll probably have more for you, maybe [Monday].”
The Rangers made an effort to bolster their center pipeline this offseason, targeting Cole Beaudoin as one of the key return pieces in the Trocheck trade with Utah on July 1.
Beaudoin is the most intriguing center prospect the Rangers could turn to, but Sunday night was just his second game of professional hockey with the AHL Wolf Pack. It’s unclear if the Rangers would want to immediately look at one of their new top prospects or let him acclimate in the AHL first.
Otherwise, the Rangers have Justin Dowling, Glenn Gawdin, Juuso Parssinen and Dylan Roobroeck as other center options in Hartford. Dowling, Gawdin and Parssinen are the only ones among them with NHL experience, but Parssinen has skated on the wing through the Wolf Pack’s first two games of the season.
Dowling, who played one game for the Rangers last season, was a healthy scratch for Hartford on Sunday night.
Sullivan liked what he saw from Tye Kartye skating on the second line, a change the Rangers head coach made during the win over the Red Wings on Friday.
So Kartye remained in that spot next to J.T. Miller and Pavel Dorofeyev the following game.
“I thought that line played well [in Detroit],” Sullivan said after morning skate Sunday. “Tye’s just a little bit of a different type of player. He brings a speed element. He’s a dog on a bone on the puck. He’s a real good puck pursuit guy. Forces turnovers, hurries plays, plays in the battle areas. You go back to last year when he played with J.T. They had a little bit of familiarity there, knowing each other’s tendencies. He’s just a little bit of a different type of player than Ollie.
“We’re still trying to explore this group that we have and figure out combinations that we think give us the best chance for success. One of the things we really like about the group, with some of the options that we have, is regardless of who we move around, we’ve got some balance.”
Eeli Tolvanen scored an empty-net goal in the win and extended his point streak to three straight games.
With his assist on Gabe Perreault’s goal, Mika Zibanejad surpassed Mark Messier for the sixth-most assists on go-ahead goals in franchise history (134).
