If anything, it’s about the opportunity for Matt Rempe.
He’ll get the ice time with AHL Hartford that he didn’t with the Rangers — a little more thanp 10 combined minutes through their opening seven games, with Rempe a healthy scratch in five of them — as early as Friday night, when the Wolf Pack play and Rempe, according to Peter Laviolette, will skate as a center.
He was a scratch again during the Rangers’ 3-1 loss to the Panthers on Thursday.
So the Blueshirts opted to send Rempe, who became a fan-favorite during the final stretch of last season with his crushing hits, old-school fights and personality, to the AHL in hopes of sparking additional development with the extra minutes.
“He’s a young player,” Laviolette said after practice Friday. “It’s like Zac [Jones], it’s like [Victor] Mancini. They’re young players. They can constantly build their game and get better. [Rempe] can get better at wall play and getting out of the zone and get better at making that next play to get through the neutral zone, the offensive zone part of the game, attention to defense — I believe he’s playing center (Friday), so he’s gonna find himself down low in D-zone coverage.
“All these things can help him become a better player.”
Rempe hadn’t been in the lineup since the Rangers’ Oct. 19 game against the Maple Leafs, and even in his two cameos this year — with the other game the Blueshirts’ home opener against the Utah Hockey Club — he logged just 3:40 and 7:37 of ice time, respectively.
Last season, he made his NHL debut in February and immediately added a jolt to the Rangers’ lineup, even adding his second-career goal during the playoff opener, before his ice time dwindled significantly — and then disappeared altogether in games against the Hurricanes and Panthers, when Laviolette made him a healthy scratch at times.
But Rempe impressed with his offseason work — which included training with top-line winger Chris Kreider — during the Rangers’ camp, but eventually, Rempe lost his spot on the fourth line with Adam Edström’s emergence.
Jimmy Vesey’s eventual return once the Blueshirts activate him from long-term injured reserve would’ve only added another layer to the lineup crunch, too, with Sam Carrick and Jonny Brodzinski holding the other two spots on the Rangers’ fourth line at the moment.
“It can be a shot to the ego for sure,” Carrick, who said he experienced what Rempe will now go through earlier in his career, told The Post, “but I think you gotta look at the positives, which is, ‘Hey, he’s gonna go down there. He’s gonna play a ton.’
“Lots of minutes. Lots of opportunities to get better. When he does get called up, which will be whenever some point, he’ll be a better player for it because he’s played in these big minutes.”
