Since being traded to the New York Rangers, Carson Soucy hasn’t exactly found a consistent role.
The Rangers acquired Soucy from the Vancouver Canucks in exchange for a 2025-third round pick just one day before the NHL Trade Deadline.
With Soucy also under contract for next season, Rangers president and general manager Chris Drury had high hopes for what the 30-year-old could provide not just this season, but into the future.
He envisioned Soucy being a staple on the Rangers’ blue line.
“We think there’s a lot of possibilities with Carson, whether it’s with Schneids or Foxy or Will (Borgen), or even having him on the right side at some point,” Drury said. “We’ll see how it plays out. I’m glad we were able to get him. I was excited about the term, excited about the number. He’s not a rental.
“He’s someone we could have in for the rest of the year and next year. I just like the overall game – the size, the skating, the sense, how he defends. We were able to do some homework on him the last couple weeks and we’re excited to get him with a piece we got in the Reilly Smith trade.”
Drury’s vision has not come into fruition whatsoever thus far.
Soucy has been scratched out of the lineup for the past two games and will be benched once again on Tuesday night against the Calgary Flames.
The emergence of Zac Jones on top of Adam Fox’s return have a lot to do with why Soucy finds himself in the doghouse.
While Peter Laviolette isn’t necessarily discouraged with what he’s seen from the veteran defenseman, he feels that Rangers’ defense has been strong over the past couple games and isn’t looking to shake things up as of right now.
“He’s been good,” Laviolette said of Soucy. “I don’t have an issue with the players that aren’t playing. Again, there are six spots on defense and we have eight defensemen here. I like the six in the way they are playing right now, so we didn’t make a change tonight, but we are happy to have both him and de Hann here. I know it is tough sitting out. Nobody likes to sit out, but I like the way our defense is playing right now.”
This dosn’t mean Soucy will be benched permanently. Things could change on a game-to-game basis depending on how well the Rangers are playing.
In all likelihood, Soucy will be back in the lineup sooner rather than later.
Based on Drury’s comments though, you would think Soucy would instantly jump into a prominent role and that just hasn’t happened.
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