2021 NY Rangers Player Report Card: Libor Hajek

If at the start of last season, you told me that Libor Hajek, the Rangers 9th defenseman on the depth chart, was going to play 44 of 56 games this season, I would have laughed in your face. Or laughed in my own, as something would have gone horribly wrong for this to happen. That’s not an insult to Hajek, it’s a simple statement that the 9th defensemen doesn’t play the overwhelming majority of the games. Yet here we are.

Hajek got into 44 games because the Rangers only played their top-six defensemen for six games, give or take. Then the Tony DeAngelo thing happened. Then injuries started piling up. There were more than a few games where the 7-8-9 defensemen were getting regular minutes.…