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Head coach Peter Laviolette confirmed Reilly Smith was a healthy scratch in the Rangers’ 4-3 win over the Canadiens on Saturday.
Smith, on his third team in the last three seasons, is certainly not solely to blame for the club’s middling start to the 2024-25 campaign, but the veteran forward has been more of a passenger than a contributor.
Amid a nine-game goal drought, Smith was relegated to the press box for the first time in his Rangers tenure.
The Blueshirts gave up a conditional fifth-round pick in 2025 and a second-rounder in 2027 to acquire Smith from the Penguins, who retained 25 percent of the 33-year-old’s $5 million cap hit to put him on the Rangers’ books at $3.75 million.
The condition of the fifth-rounder is that it will be the worst between the Rangers’ and the Wild, acquired by the Blueshirts in the Ryan Reaves deal in November 2022.
In 22 games before Saturday’s scratch, Smith collected three goals and nine assists.
Following a two-assist performance Saturday, Adam Fox reached 20 helpers on the season. He is tied with the Jets’ Josh Morrisey for the second-most assists among defensemen in the NHL.
Among the top 35 point leaders for defensemen, however, Fox is the only one not to have a single goal.
Artemi Panarin’s team-leading eighth multipoint game of the season, via a goal and an assist Saturday, allowed the star Russian wing to pass Yvan Cournoyer (223) for the 10th-most such performances by an undrafted player since the NHL Draft was introduced in 1963.
Held without a point just six times through 23 games this season, Panarin’s 28 total points leads the Rangers.
The Rangers were off Sunday before they return to game action on Monday night against the Devils at Madison Square Garden. It will count as the second contest in a five-game homestand, their longest of the season.
