The Rangers were in need of a right wing and Jack Roslovic was in need of a platform prior to hitting the summer market as an unrestricted free agent for the first time in his seven-year career.
Lo and behold, the twain met at the March 8 deadline and instead of being an also-ran with the Blue Jackets, the 27-year-old is running with Mika Zibanejad, Chris Kreider and the Boys in Blue seeking the Stanley Cup.
Serendipity!
“Free agency hasn’t been on my mind but this gives me the opportunity to come in and be in the playoffs and be known as a winner,” the 27-year-old Roslovic, obtained from Columbus in exchange for a conditional third- or fourth-rounder in 2026, told The Post. “That’s what this league is all about.
“I’ve seen it. You want guys who are career winners on your team and around the young guys in your organization so I think this can help me establish my name in that way.
“The priority, though, is winning.”
The Rangers had gone 5-1 in six games since the deadline to stake claim to second overall in the NHL in advance of Tuesday night’s match at the Garden against the fifth-overall Jets. They’d done it without Jacob Trouba, down with a lower-body matter since the deadline, and they are going to have to continue to do it for the foreseeable future without both the captain and Ryan Lindgren, who sustained a left leg injury Sunday.
Jack Roslovic has made a seamless Rangers transition. Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY SportsThe newly created Zibanejad combination has been on for five goals scored and only one against in 63:10 of five-on-five, through which the unit has played with pace and established a sizable territorial advantage through its ability to gain the zone and work below the hash marks.
An untrained eye would be unable to detect that the Rangers have not had a single practice since the deadline. Neither would a trained eye.
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“The games are the tests. I was never good at tests,” Roslovic said with a self-deprecating touch. “But the self-awareness I have is that you can learn a lot from those [tests] and you can become very sharp in those.
“Obviously the games are more than learning experiences. We’re here to win games. Yes, it’s unfortunate in some ways we haven’t been able to practice and get those extra reps, but I think it’s going well and we’re on a good trajectory.”
Roslovic, who was drafted 25th overall by Winnipeg in 2015 and in whom the Blueshirts had more than a passing interest at the 2019 deadline when Kevin Hayes was sent to the Jets for a first-rounder and Brendan Lemieux, has stepped in as if he’s been here for, well, at least a month.
“He skates really well, holds onto the puck, makes plays with his head up and is really good with his edges,” said Kreider, second on the club with 33 goals to Artemi Panarin’s 38. “He wants to go north, wants to play quick and generate offense.
“We’re pretty reliable five-on-five. We talk about how to generate offense but at the same time we take a lot of pride in not being scored on. The past few games, we’ve scored some goals at five-on-five but we’re giving up a little more, so it’s up to us to maintain that gap, if not make it bigger.”
Indeed, Kreider (61.64 percent) and Zibanejad (56.34) are one-two among Rangers forwards in goal differential while combining for a 60.94 percent difference when on together (39 for, 25 against). If anything is lost because of the lack of practice, it comes on the defensive side.
Mika Zibanejad of the Rangers celebrates his second period goal against the Islanders along with Jack Roslovic. Getty Images“We’re communicating with Jack, understanding our assignments, the smaller things,” Kreider said. “We’re learning whether he wants to work his way back to right wing or if he’s comfortable on the left, or if he’s first guy back, is he comfortable down low and doesn’t need a switch?
“When you don’t practice and there’s a lot of stuff going on, there’s going to be a moment in a game where you’re both looking at each other, you’re not 100 percent and the minute that happens there might be a little space for the other team to at least generate a chance.”
So it’s been trial and error, with errors minimized. The Rangers are gearing up for the playoffs and, for the first time since 2020 when he was in Winnipeg, so is Roslovic.
New York Rangers center Jack Roslovic (96) waits for a pass in the first period against the St. Louis Blues. Corey Sipkin for the NY POST“It’s hard not to acknowledge that I didn’t fall into a great situation because I know that I did,” No. 96 said while employing a double negative to describe a wholly positive turn of events. “I went from 28th in the league to second. The team did a lot of hard work in order to be there.
“I’m just trying to mesh as well and as fast as I can within that culture. That’s my responsibility.”
