Overview
- The Rangers placed 25-year-old defenseman Matthew Robertson on waivers on Monday, making him available for any NHL team to claim.
- Club sources and reports say the move was driven by the need to add forward depth after center Joe Veleno suffered a lower-body injury and missed practice.
- Robertson had been scratched for New York’s first four games this season and is coming off a 72-game rookie campaign in which he scored six goals and totaled 18 points.
- A claim would immediately add Robertson to another team’s roster and could change his end-of-season free-agent status because six more NHL games would convert him from a projected Group VI unrestricted free agent to a restricted free agent.
- If Robertson clears waivers he would likely be assigned to AHL Hartford, a step that would preserve the Rangers’ defensive depth but remove him from the NHL roster for the short term.