Rangers rule out depth forward for Game 3 against Panthers

New York Rangers forward Jimmy Vesey has been ruled out due to an upper-body injury ahead of Sunday's Game 3 of the Eastern Conference Final against the Florida Panthers (scheduled for a 3 p.m. ET start at Amerant Bank Arena in Sunrise, FL).

He suffered the injury in Game 2 Friday night – a 2-1 win overtime win by the Rangers that tied the series 1-1 – on a hit by the Panthers Ryan Lomberg at 11:48 of the second period.

Vesey is listed as week-to-week.

He has a goal and two assists for three points in 12 playoff games and an average ice time of 11:11 per game after posting 13 goals and 26 points in 80 games during the regular season.

Among the candidates to replace Vesey in the lineup are Kaapo Kakko and Blake Wheeler.

“We know when you go through the whole thing it’s a long grind and things pop up like it did last night and you need a lot of players available,” New York coach Peter Laviolette said via Tom Gulitti of NHL.com.  “So, we’ve got a lot of guys who are ready to jump back into the lineup, and that’s a good thing for us. We were getting healthy, and so we take a little bit of a hit last night, but it’s nice to have the players that are ready to go.”

Kakko, 23, was a healthy scratch for the first time in the playoffs on Friday. He has a goal and an assist in 11 playoff games. Wheeler, 37, has not played since suffering a lower-body injury against the Montreal Canadiens on Feb. 15.