Imposing Rempe scratched after recall from AHL

With the March 8 deadline less than a month away, the Rangers have chosen to get a look at Matt Rempe rather than accruing additional space under the cap for at least these last two days.

For while recalling Rempe before Sunday’s practice to create a 23-man roster ahead of his healthy scratch against the Flames on Monday, general manager Chris Drury is losing the $4,270.83 on the center’s $820,000 salary the Rangers would otherwise be accruing on a daily basis.

In addition to the 6-foot-8 Rempe, who skated the rookie lap before participating in pregame warm-up, the Blueshirts scratched winger Tyler Pitlick and defenseman Zac Jones from the 2-0 victory.

Adam Edstrom, also recalled Sunday, went into the lineup and played left wing on the checking line with Barclay Goodrow in the middle and Jimmy Vesey on the right.

The Blueshirts, whose space is currently frozen as they dip into Filip Chytil’s Long Term Exemption, are projected to have $3,570,833 of space at the deadline. That would increase incrementally if Rempe, Edstrom ($846,667) or Pitlick ($787,500) were to be sent to the Wolf Pack.

Edstrom’s daily charge is $4,409.72 while Pitlick’s is $4,101.56.

➤ Edstrom would have been gotten a second opportunity with the Blueshirts far sooner than this after impressing in his Dec. 15 debut against the Ducks in which he scored a late goal, but the 23-year-old Swede suffered an unidentified injury for the Wolf Pack on Dec. 27 that sidelined him until Feb. 10. He was recalled as soon as his first game back had ended.

The 6-7 winger got 9:23 of ice time and 4:08 in the third period that included a shift with 4:35 remaining and the Blueshirts protecting a 1-0 lead.

“I thought he was good. He’s a big guy that just skates so well and even in practice you could see him moving and skating with ease,” head coach Peter Laviolette said. “I like his physicality. I like his awareness.

“He was a player that played good defense [in Hartford] and killed penalties and eventually we’ll start to work him into different scenarios but there wasn’t anything in the game that made me think he couldn’t play the last four, five minutes.”

➤ The Blueshirts were 0-for-3 in 4:19 on the man-advantage extending their O-fer to 0-for-17 over the last seven games. Team split into its new alignment for the first power play and the second abbreviated one but went back to the standard PP1 for the third-period manadvantage.

➤ The Blueshirts, who extended their winning streak to five games, have the Canadiens on the Garden Thursday before facing the Islanders in the elements at MetLife Stadium on Sunday afternoon.