Rangers’ 2015 second-round pick Ryan Gropp has been suspended by the Hartford Wolf Pack after failing to report to the Maine Mariners of the ECHL, according to the AHL as well as the NY Post’s Larry Brooks.
It is unclear whether Gropp, 23, is not reporting to the team’s ECHL affiliate with the Rangers’ permission or whether his absence is in defiance. In either case, it’s the latest tribulation in what has been a painful downfall for a player the Rangers traded up to acquire and whom the team ranked as the sixth-best forward in the 2015 NHL Draft.