Victor Mancini had an unusual travel experience on his way to Edmonton to meet the New York Rangers. The Rangers called up Mancini on Friday after Zac Jones suffered an upper-body injury and was listed as day-to-day. According to Mollie Walker of The New York Post, Mancini was about to put on his skates for practice with the Hartford Wolf Pack when he got the call that he would be rejoining the Rangers. Walker added that there were a few delays on his way to Edmonton and he ultimately arrived at the team hotel at 3:30 AM early on Saturday morning. Mancini played a total of 15:57 minutes in New York’s 6-1 loss to the Edmonton Oilers and he failed to record a point. While the 22-year-old defenseman was sent down to the American Hockey League, Peter Laviolette made clear that the team made that move strictly to help his development and not because of his play on the ice. “He was here, he didn’t do anything to lose that spot, we just didn’t want him sitting here not playing games,” Laviolette said. “To keep him going and developing, he went back down to play games. Now he’s back.” Stan Fischler talks about Matt Rempe. It’s unclear when Jones will be back and what the future holds for Mancini at this point, but at the very least the young defenseman has a crazy story that he’ll always remember.
