Brutal warning sent to Rangers’ Matt Rempe!
He has been challenged to fight in 4 of his 5 NHL career games.
HockeyFeed
New York Rangers rookie Matt Rempe appeared in five games and has been challenged to fight in four of those contests. Though he’s collected a goal and an assist since his debut, fans and pundits have been more focused on his fights as he’s dropped the gloves against New York Islanders’ Matt Martin, New Jersey Devils’ Jonas Siegenthaler, Philadelphia Flyers’ Nic Deslauriers and Columbus Blue Jackets’ Mathieu Olivier.
On Tuesday, Kempe was seen at Rangers’ practice with some scars and a black eye from his last fight with Olivier. The photo went viral and caught the attention of Hadi Kalakeche, Director of North American Scouting, who had a warning message to Kempe in his rookie season:
“Call me soft all you want, but a 21-year-old kid looking like this after a total of 15 minutes of ice time should not be allowed.
“His brain isn’t even close to fully developed. CTE is no joke.”
This is a worry that’s been coming up quite a bit since Rempe’s debut and the amount of fights he’s been putting up. When asked about his player and how sustainable it is to see him fight consistently like this, Rangers coach Peter Laviolette said that there were “conversations all the time.”
As for some former enforcers, John Scott was one of them who had a different advice for Rempe. Both tall players, Scott and Rempe have additional challenges when dropping the gloves against a shorter opponent.
Scott, who had the role of enforcer with teams like the Minnesota Wild, Chicago Blackhawks, Rangers, Buffalo Sabres, San Jose Sharks, Arizona Coyotes and Montreal Canadiens for eight seasons, said on his “Dropping the Gloves” podcast:
“When You’re 6-foot-7, you want to grab him by his neck right here,” Scott said while motioning to his Adam’s apple. “You want to drive your fist up into his neck so he can’t breathe and it’s uncomfortable for him. That’s what I would try to do. I wasn’t a big jersey jab, punch in the head. I hated that. I would grab it and I would push it on the guy’s neck and it would make it uncomfortable so he’d have to swivel off.”
I would tend to focus on Kalakeche’s advice and hope the kid can be careful about his health and the risk of concussions and CTE…
Rempe is turning heads in his NHL rookie year, but he also needs to protect his.
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