Report: Rangers reach out to Tomas Kaberle to help bolster patchwork blue line
There's no D in New York Rangers, and at the moment there's very few D in the Rangers lineup. At least very few D of bona fide NHL quality.
With John Moore (suspension), Kevin Klein (foot) and Ryan McDonagh (shoulder) all out of the lineup, the Rangers are scrambling for an answer on their back-end. On Monday night they dressed farmhands Dylan McIlrath and Conor Allen and the results were not pretty - well, aside from the goal St. Louis Blues forward Vladimir Tarasenko scored.
The Rangers' blue-line depth issues has caused them to get a bit creative, and this week they reached out to unrestricted free agent defenseman Tomas Kaberle, according to Steve Zipay of Newsday:
FA d-man Tomas Kaberle has been invited for a look from Rangers. Unclear if he will skate with them tomorrow
— Steve Zipay (@stevezipay) November 4, 2014
ESPN's Pierre LeBrun reports that while Kaberle is expected to join the club for a skate and practice shortly, he hasn't been signed at this point.
Kaberle, 36, was invited to New Jersey Devils training camp this past September, but didn't make the cut. He hasn't played an NHL game since he appeared in 10 games with the Montreal Canadiens in 2012-13.
While his two-way skills have diminished significantly, he's likely still capable of providing the Rangers with replacement level performance in a prescribed, bottom-pairing role.
It ain't much, but it's more than the Rangers received from McIlrath and Allen on Monday night ...