Rangers coach Alain Vigneault has seen what everybody else has seen – that defenseman Dan Boyle has struggled, to put it kindly.
So when the Rangers host Winnipeg Tuesday, the plan is for Boyle to be a healthy scratch while rookie Dylan McIlrath makes his season debut.
Vigneault said on Monday that the decision was more tilted toward wanting to give McIlrath a look. The tough 23-year-old, who played in two NHL games in 2013-14 and one last season, made the team in training camp … aided by the fact that he would have had to go through waivers and almost certainly would have been claimed by another team.