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.