If the Rangers reconstruction is to be architecturally correct, the Blueshirts rebuilder has to start at the bottom.
And Chief Petty Foreman Chris Drury has done just that – he signed Matt Rempe to a two-year contract.
It doesn't get much lower than that, does it?
Or, as blogger Adam Herman put it on X/Twitter, "Any time one of the worst defensive teams has the opportunity to sign one of the worst defensive forwards for two years, they just have to do it."
The Maven can't make up his mind whether critic Herman is delivering his gratuitous kick in the toosh to the Rangers skating giraffe or his trainer-of-many-titles, Sir Drury.
Ah, well, it really doesn't matter to those of us in the Matt Rempe Marching And Chowder Society of which I am traveling secretary and official critic delete-er.
It's too easy to put the rap on Rempe. Wouldn't you be jealous of a fella who not only is the tallest and heaviest player in Bettman, Inc. but also the third handsomest after Connor McDavid and Brad Marchand – but only after Brad dumps the moustache.
Let's face it, Rempe-haters would rant about my second-favorite Ranger – after Jonny
Brodzinski – if he stood upside-down on the top of the Empire State Building tower, sipping a Dr. Brown's Cel-Ray Tonic.
Esteemed Hockey News columnist Ken Campbell once had the audacity to suggest that – egad what a cad! – Rempe doesn't belong in major league hockey.
And Campbell didn't mean maybe either.
Nonetheless, the 6-9, 250-pound wonder man out of the Calgary wilderness will lead The Grand Ranger Renaissance, teaming with the equally monstrous Adam Edstrom.
"Toss energizer Jonny Brodzinski between those skyscrapers and you'll have one heckuva fourth line," says The Old Scout.
Matt Rempe Signs Two-Year Contract Extension With Rangers
The New York <a href="https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/new-york-rangers" target="_blank">Rangers</a> agreed on a two-year contract extension with Matt Rempe on Wednesday morning.
Believe me, that's the plan and it's a good one but what I never could have figured is why Peter Laviolette figured it out. Used regularly, that trio could have produced more energy than Con Edison on a hot day.
The former coach treated Matt like a Sideshow Charlie and that was the gist and jest of it. Little ice time with a suspension thrown in for good measure.
I'm betting my Silex coffee-maker that Matt will make it as a full-time fourth-liner as long as he realizes that a "back check" is not something you take to the bank!