As the Rangers picked up their first win at Madison Square Garden, Gabe Perreault made his season debut Monday night against the Predators.
The Rangers recalled Perreault from Hartford for the first time this season on Sunday in the aftermath of the team’s seventh straight loss on home ice.
Perreault had started to gain some momentum for the Wolf Pack, posting a four-game goal streak and eight total points over that span.
“I think I’ve been playing well,” the 20-year-old said after morning skate on Monday. “I think it was really good for me to go down there [to Hartford], play a lot of minutes, work on little things I needed to work on. And, you know, hopefully it’ll translate.”
Perreault skated on the left wing of the Rangers top line next to Mika Zibanejad and J.T. Miller in the 6-3 win over Nashville.
Additionally, head coach Mike Sullivan put Perreault on the second power-play unit with Alexis Lafrenière, Vincent Trocheck, Taylor Raddysh and Braden Schneider.
It was there that Perreault notched his first NHL point in the form of an assist on Lafrenière’s second-period power-play goal Monday night.
“I just think it makes us deeper,” Sullivan said of Perreault’s addition. “It gives us more balance. The thought process with Gabe, he’s had a pretty decent start, especially most recently in Hartford. He’s an offensive player that has really good instincts on that side of the puck. So our intention is to try to set him up for success so he can play to his strengths. So in other words, I don’t know that it makes a whole lot of sense to call a player up like that and put him in a bottom six role.
“I think he’s a guy that potentially could help us, if we can get the best version of him. So it’s a great opportunity for him. We’re excited to watch him.”
After missing a couple of games for the Wolf Pack this past weekend for what was described as an upper-body injury, Perreault said it was “just a precautionary thing.”
He assured he was good to go physically.
Perreault became the fifth rookie to suit up for the Rangers this season, following Noah Laba, Matthew Robertson, Brennan Othmann and Jaroslav Chmelar.
“We want to try to put players in positions to succeed,” Sullivan said. “Ideally, we were trying to give Gabe some time down there to build and develop his game, physically and otherwise, in the hopes that when he does get called to New York, he has the ability to be successful. I obviously talked to Chris [Drury] after the game the other night [and] yesterday when the decision was made.
“A lot of it’s based on Gabe’s own performance down there, and what we think the needs of the Rangers are here at this particular point in time.”
Matt Rempe, who has been nursing an upper-body injury, was moved from injured reserve to long-term injured reserve on Monday.
Monday counted as the eighth straight game Rempe has missed since suffering an apparent injury in his fight with Sharks enforcer Ryan Reaves on Oct. 23.
On LTIR, Rempe is required to miss at least 10 games and 24 days.
Since the timeline is retroactive to the date of the injury, the earliest Rempe could return is after the Red Wings game Nov. 16.
Igor Shesterkin stopped 27 of the 30 shots he faced in his fifth win of the season.
