Stage set for Rempe vs. Reaves
TORONTO — The Rangers and Maple Leafs will enter the Hockey Night in Canada ring Saturday amid the most successful stretches of each team’s respective season.
Bookending the top-five teams in the Eastern Conference, the clubs go headto-head in a litmus test contest that not only carries standings implications but will also feature two generations of NHL enforcers in each corner.
On the Maple Leafs’ side: 37-year-old, 6-foot-2, 226-pound Ryan Reaves.
On the Rangers’ side: 21-year-old, 6-8 ½, 245-pound Matt Rempe.
There have been conversations with Rempe about his newfound celebrity as the league’s newest face puncher, so it is not guaranteed that the Rangers rookie will accept or initiate a tilt with one of the league’s last throwback fighters.
But Reaves dusted off his fists for his first fight since October against the Coyotes’ Liam O’Brien on Thursday.
He then fielded questions about Matt Rempe on Friday.
“He’s coming in [the] league trying to make a name for himself any way he can,” Reaves told reporters. “That’s how I came in. I wasn’t called up to add a scoring touch, that’s for sure. It was to be physical and stand up for teammates and draw some energy.
“Good on him. He’s got some attention, and we’ll see how long it lasts.”
Asked about the chances of a showdown with Rempe, Reaves was nonchalant.
“I don’t have the game script,” he said. “But you never know.”
Reaves, who played 81 games for the Rangers over two seasons before the organization traded him to Minnesota last year, has fallen into the same situation as he did at the end of his tenure in New York. After skating in the first 14 games, Reaves has since bounced in and out of the lineup, partially due to injury and largely due to coaching decisions.
He’s played in the last four straight contests and 11 of the last 13, however, so the chances of Reaves ending up on the ice the same time as Rempe are high.
The Rangers signed Connor
Mackey to a two-year, two-way extension that carries a cap hit of $775,000 on Friday, according to a source.
The 27-year-old defenseman played in one game for the Rangers this season in Ottawa on Jan. 27, when Mackey dropped the gloves with Senators captain Brady Tkachuk. Mackey has scored two goals and dished nine assists in 36 AHL games for the Wolf Pack this season.