RANGERS RECALLS PRESENT CHALLENGE FOR WOLF PACK 

By: Gerry Cantlon, Howlings

HARTFORD, CT – The New York Rangers announced the club recalled Hartford forwards Jonny Brodzinski and Adam Edström and reassigned defenseman Connor Mackey back to the Wolf Pack.

Brodzinski, 30, in 16 games, leads the Wolf Pack in both goals with 11 and points with 25. The 25 points lead the entire AHL, while his 11 goals tie him for fourth overall.

The Minnesota native is in his fourth season with the Wolf Pack. He has been the club’s captain for three of those four years. In 113 games with Hartford, Brodzinski has collected 56 goals and 73 assists for 129 points.

Brodzinski has skated in 313 AHL contests with the Wolf Pack, San Jose Barracuda, and Ontario Reign in his minor pro career. He’s scored 126 goals and complied 141 assists for 267 points.

Brodzinski has skated in 102 NHL games between the Rangers, San Jose Sharks, and Los Angeles Kings. His ledger shows just 17 points made up of nine goals and eight assists in primarily part-time and sparse duty.

Brodzinski dressed in one game with the Rangers this season in a one-game recall in his home state of Minnesota against the Wild on November 4th.

The recall became necessary when Kappo Kakko suffered a severe left leg injury late in the second period in the Rangers’ 5-1 loss to Buffalo.

It is a sad fact, but if Kakko is lost for the remainder of the season or placed on a long-term injured list, his salary will come off the books for the time he is out, which will give the Rangers the cap space they desperately need. It would provide them with the flexibility to move at the trade deadline.

ADAM EDSTROM

Edström, 23, has recorded nine points on seven goals and two assists in 18 games in his first season with the Wolf Pack. The fleet-footed 6’8 center has been reliable defensively, playing often in the critical last two minutes of the game and during critical situations.

Last season, Edström played in 42 games with Rögle BK of the SHL. He scored his first career AHL goal on a beautiful breakaway move to beat his defender in his first three regular-season games with the Wolf Pack.

Edström was a sixth-round selection (161st overall) by the Rangers in the 2019 NHL Entry Draft.

The Wolf Pack has made no concurrent recalls to their ECHL affiliates, the Cincinnati Cyclones, have been announced yet.

CONNOR MACKEY

Mackey, 27, has scored four points on one goal and three assists in nine games with the Wolf Pack this season.

He still leads the Wolf Pack in plus/minus with at +11. He tied the franchise record for single-game best plus/minus when he recorded a plus-5 in the club’s 5-0 victory over the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins on October 20th.

The 6’2 defenseman has appeared in 89 AHL contests with the Wolf Pack and Stockton Heat (nee Calgary Wranglers), recording 56 points on nine goals and 47 assists.

NOTES:

Former Hartford Whaler Dean Evason was let go by Minnesota on Monday. The Wild also recalled ex-Pack Vinni Lettieri from the Iowa Wild.

On Monday, the New Jersey Devils and the New York Islanders concluded a rare divisional trade, albeit an AHL one. The Islanders sent Bridgeport forward Arnaud Durandeau, a Wolf Pack nuisance the last two years, for Tyce Thompson (Milford/Salisbury School) from the Utica Comets. For Thompson, the move comes a year after his father, ex-Pack and Bridgeport head coach Brent Thompson, left the organization for an assistant coaching position with the Anaheim Ducks.

The Calgary Flames returned Nick DeSimone (CT Oilers-EHL) to the Calgary Wranglers.

Kaedan Korczak, the older brother of the Wolf Pack’s Ryder Korczak, was recalled from the Henderson Silver Knights by the parent Las Vegas Golden Knights.

Parker Gahagen, the former Wolf Pack emergency goalie, was reassigned to the Reading Royals (ECHL) by the Lehigh Valley Phantoms.

Aaron Schwartz of the Surrey Eagles (BCHL) commits to the Quinnipiac University Bobcats (ECACHL) for next year.

HARTFORD WOLF PACK

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