Articles: January 30th
New York Post: RANGERS OBTAIN REITZ FOR ‘LEVERAGE’
The hermetically sealed roster has been penetrated. The Rangers have come to the conclusion that the personnel that has produced a 29-17-4 record isn’t sufficient to go as deep into the post-season as required.
Hence, the first trade of the year, with waived winger Dan Fritsche going to Minnesota in exchange for 26-year-old defenseman Erik Reitz, who apparently packed some toughness into his hockey bag for the trip to New York.
New York Daily News: Rangers deal winger Dan Fritsche for defenseman Erik Reitz
Adding Reitz to the roster gives the Rangers seven defensemen after a season of carrying only six – an addition Tom Renney said earlier in the week that he’d like to see “in a perfect world.”
“He’s got some toughness, he’s got an edge to him. I don’t know if that’s his forte, quite honestly, but…he can take care of himself, stand up for his teammates,” the coach said of Reitz, who had a goal, an assist and 41 penalty minutes for the Wild this season. “What we think we’ve done is we’ve added a dimension to our team with respect to his edge that we can use on the back end.”
Newsday: Rangers trade Fritsche to Wild for Reitz
Renney said that using Reitz as the seventh defenseman isn’t a knock on Hartford defensemen Corey Potter and Bobby Sanguinetti. Reitz’s experience at the NHL level will allow him to join the team immediately and potentially make an impact.
“He’ll come here and jump in with us right away,” Renney said, “and we’ll see what we’ve got.”
