Ryan Lindgren is set to return to the lineup from an upper-body injury any day now as he’s been back practicing with the New York Rangers.
Lindgren suffered an upper-body injury during the preseason after fighting with Scott Mayfield, which kept him out for the rest of training camp and the start of the regular season.
Now though, Lindgren is expected to make his triumphant return very soon and the Rangers will have to make a big decision once he is slotted into the lineup.
Victor Mancini has been playing well through his first four NHL games, but there isn’t much room for the young defenseman once Lindgren returns.
The most likely scenario is that the Rangers send Mancini back down to the Hartford Wolf Pack of the American Hockey league where he will continue to develop as a player.
While the Rangers could realistically keep Mancini in the NHL and have him rotate in and out of the lineup every few games, that would not be helpful for his overall growth.
It’s better for Mancini to tally up big minutes in Hartford and play in every sort of situation where he’ll learn a lot more than if he was watching the Rangers from the press box.
The 22-year-old should be the Wolf Pack’s best defenseman and that’s a role he will be able to thrive in.
If the Rangers are dealing with other injuries later on in the season, they can call Mancini back up and based on his level of play right now, he’ll be more than ready to step back in.
