Winger out indefinitely with blood clot

Rangers left wing Chris Kreider was diagnosed with a blood clot in his right arm and was going through further testing Thursday after quickly being sent to the hospital Wednesday night, when he suddenly experienced swelling and discomfort before departing during the first intermission.

The team said Kreider is out indefinitely and a treatment plan had yet to be determined. For reference, after Lightning players Steven Stamkos and Andrei Vasilevskiy in recent years had blood-clot surgeries in their collarbone areas, each returned within approximately two months of the surgery.

“The only thing that I know is, just before the first period he felt some swelling in his arm,” Alain Vigneault said Thursday. “Docs checked him out, didn’t see anything out of the ordinary. Then in between the first and the second it got to a point where this was out of the ordinary. So they sent him to the hospital and found it out.”

Stamkos returned for Game 7 of the conference final on May 26, 2016 after undergoing surgery in early April. Vasilevskiy, who like Mets pitcher Matt Harvey was diagnosed with Thoracic Outlet syndrome, returned on Nov. 1, 2015, following an early-September procedure.

Former Ranger Jed Ortmeyer, who currently works for the team as director of player development, had blood clots in his lungs in the summer of 2006 when he was diagnosed with a mutation in his genes that caused blood to be thicker than normal, which can lead to clot formation, according to a piece he wrote last year for the Players’ Tribune. Ortmeyer came back on Jan. 2, 2007, and played 41 games that season.

Henrik Lundqvist suffered a different but scary injury three seasons ago when his neck snapped back so hard while taking a puck to the throat that he sprained a blood vessel in his neck, causing him to miss roughly two months.

“It’s never fun when things happen like that, but it does happen. The best thing you can do is be patient for him,” Lundqvist said. “The most important thing is to be patient. I’ve been through it myself with the neck injury. There’s not much else you can do but deal with it.”

Kreider has 11 goals and 11 assists in 37 games after posting a team-best 28 goals last season.

With Jesper Fast still recovering from a quad strain, the Rangers needed to call up a forward from Hartford, which turned out to be Vinni Lettieri. Signed as an undrafted free agent in March, Lettieri was one of the final cuts in training camp and has 12 goals and nine assists with Hartford this season. Fast, who last week was given a two-to-three week recovery timetable, is rehabbing but hasn’t skated since getting injured last Thursday in Newark. “Best Christmas present yet,” Lettieri said of his first NHL call-up. A right-hander who doesn’t hesitate to shoot the puck, Lettieri practiced Thursday as the fourth-line right wing with Paul Carey and Boo Nieves and also took a spot on the second power-play unit, where Kreider also left a void.

“(Kreider) was the guy I started off with from Day 1 last training camp,” said Mika Zibanejad, in his second season as a Ranger. “We drove together quite a bit in the beginning as well last year. It sucks. It’s never fun to see anyone hurt in any kind of way. Just hoping for a speedy recovery and hope everything is gonna be OK.”

RANGERS at RED WINGS 7:30 on MSG