Rangers place 3 on waivers, including Ben Harpur
The New York Rangers placed defenseman Ben Harpur, center Jake Leschyshyn and forward Alex Belzile on waivers Friday. All three are likely headed to Hartford of the American Hockey League if they go unclaimed, as expected.
The Rangers also assigned goalie Talyn Boyko to Hartford.
Harpur might be the most familiar name — and perhaps biggest surprise — of those players placed on waivers. The 29-year-old defenseman has played parts of seven seasons in the NHL and skated in 42 games with New York in 2022-23, finishing with six points (one goal, five assists), while averaging 14:04 of ice time in a bottom-pair role after joining the team as a free agent in October 2022.
Harpur missed almost all of last season with a pectoral muscle injury that required surgery, playing just seven games for Hartford. The Rangers recalled him from Hartford during the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs, but he did not see action.
He dressed for one of the Rangers’ three preseason games, playing 20:33 and finishing minus-1 in the 6-4 win against the New York Islanders on Tuesday.
This move is a bit of a surprise considering the Rangers are deciding how to fill the void on their defense corps created by the lower-body injury sustained by Ryan Lindgren against the Islanders. Harpur has NHL experience and is a left shot like Lindgren. This moves leaves lefty Connor Mackey and right-hand shots Chad Ruhwedel and Victor Mancini as the the main candidates remaining in camp.
In all, Harpur has 21 points (two goals, 19 assists) in 198 NHL games with the Ottawa Senators, Nashville Predators and the Rangers.
Related: 3 Rangers takeaways from 5-2 preseason win against Bruins
Rangers place Harpur, Leschyshyn, Belzile on waivers
Leschyshyn, son of longtime NHL defenseman Curtis Leschyshyn, played one game with the Rangers last season, seeing 6:28 of ice time against the St. Louis Blues on Jan. 11, 2024. That was one year to the day after he was claimed by the Rangers on waivers from the Vegas Golden Knights, who selected him in the second round (No. 62) of the 2017 NHL Draft. He spent the rest of the season with Hartford, finishing with 19 points (eight goals, 11 assists) in 47 games. He also led the Wolf Pack with five goals in 10 Calder Cup Playoff games.
The 25-year-old was scoreless, averaged 10:55 of ice time and went minus-3 in two preseason games for the Rangers; he didn’t dress for their 5-2 win against the Boston Bruins at Madison Square Garden on Thursday.
He has six points (two goals, four assists) in 77 NHL games with Vegas and New York; all of his points came in 2021-22, his first NHL season, when he played 41 games for the Golden Knights.
Belzile, an undrafted free agent who spent three seasons shuttling between the Montreal Canadiens and their AHL affiliate in Laval, Quebec, before signing with the Rangers as a free agent on July 1, 2023, led Hartford in scoring last season with 50 points (19 goals, 31 assists) in 61 games. He had three points (one goal, two assists) in 10 playoff games.
The 33-year-old had the game-winning goal in the Rangers’ preseason opener, a 3-2 road win against the Bruins on Sunday.
Belzile is a testament to the power of never giving up – he was in his ninth season in the minor leagues before making his NHL debut with the Canadiens in 2020-21. All of his NHL scoring totals (14 points; six goals, eight assists) came in 2022-23, when he played 31 of his 44 NHL games.
Boyko, the Rangers’ fourth-round choice (No. 112) in the 2021 draft, turned pro last year and spent the 2023-24 season with Cincinnati of the ECHL, going 13-9-1 with a 3.42 goals-against average and a save percentage of .888.
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