There are two games left in the Rangers season. With that in mind, Peter Laviolette announced that Matthew Robertson will make his NHL debut when the Rangers take on the Panthers in the sunshine state on Monday.

A 2019 second round pick, Robertson is in his fourth pro season with the Hartford Wolf Pack. In 60 games, he has a goal and 24 assists for 25 points with 55 penalty minutes and a minus-5 rating. His 24 assists and 25 points pace all Wolf Pack defensemen. He’s been recalled before but never gotten into a game for the Rangers. That’ll finally change later tonight.

Braden Schneider won’t play in the final two games. He’s been playing through an upper-body injury this season. That might explain some of the inconsistency he had in his fourth season. He still established new career bests in goals (6), assists (15), and points (21) while finishing with a plus-9 rating on a bad team. According to Rangers beat writer Mollie Walker of the NY Post, he should be ready for the start of next season.

De Haan Vents Frustration to Reporters

Speaking of Walker, she’s been quite busy the past 24 hours. She broke the story on Sunday that Calvin de Haan wasn’t happy with how he’s been treated by the Rangers. A well-respected veteran defenseman, the 33-year-old de Haan approached beat writers before yesterday’s practice and vented some frustration over how he’s been handled.

Since playing in three games, which the Rangers went 2-0-1 in, he hasn’t played in another one. That included consecutive 4-0 shutouts over the Predators and Islanders on Mar. 2-3. The Rangers lost 3-2 to the Caps at home in overtime on Mar. 5. It never made any sense why de Haan came out of the lineup. He was much better than Carson Soucy, who hasn’t distinguished himself since Chris Drury acquired him at the trade deadline. I never understood the rationale behind the move. It felt like overkill for a player who’s in decline.

To his credit, de Haan got out in front of it. After being asked by the Rangers PR not to talk about it, he decided that he’d wait until the season concluded. However, he made a well thought out post on Twitter/X expressing how he felt about the situation. It was very classy.

“I was hoping that I would have been able to express in a scrum setting versus a quote as I was going onto the ice and having it on the Internet 30 seconds later. I said what I said because I am frustrated , and any competitor who says that they would be happy in this position would be lying to you. After playing 3 games for the team and going 2-0-1 , I thought I maybe would have got an opportunity to jump into the lineup and help win some games.

Did I help win those games I played, maybe? Maybe not? But we still won and collected some crucial points to climb the standings. I understand the youth movement in the nhl, and I’m getting older in hockey years and I may not play every single night. I feel like I can still contribute and help teams win. I know I’m not going to play 20 minutes a night in the role I’ve been in the past few years , but again I feel like I can still keep up and help a team in certain facets of the game.

I’m not trying to be the villain or gain attention or throw shade on the organization , I would have preferred a scrum setting to chat about how my time with the rangers has gone. As a player you have to respect the lineup decisions whether you like them or not, it’s just been frustrating not being able to compete and do what I love to do. I hope everyone understands.”

What de Haan said is exactly how most of us have felt watching this team. Many fans have questioned why he remained out of the lineup. It has been a very frustrating and long year.

Things have been so badly handled by Drury and the organization. It’s almost as if they are oblivious to how things look. De Haan became the sixth player to voice his displeasure. You could go all the way back to Barclay Goodrow last summer in that ridiculous waiver deal Drury set up with Mike Grier to send him to San Jose, who was on his 16-team no-trade list.

That set the wheels in motion for the toxic environment at MSG. Jacob Trouba had to have his name muddied due to both the leak to NY Post columnist Larry Brooks and then the mistimed league memo that made both him and Chris Kreider available. There was Kaapo Kakko showing his frustration over coming out of the lineup. He was justified in pointing out that it’s always a younger roster player over a veteran. Zac Jones then spoke out about not being used. Now, de Haan came clean.

How many players feel this way about the organization? It’s become a serious issue. Is it as simple as James Dolan is back in control of the operation? Since Glen Sather retired, things have taken a turn for the worse. The Rangers have gone from one of the most respected teams to a circus very quickly.

I’m sure more will come out after they play their final game.