Fox is required to miss at least 10 games and 24 days on LTIR. He tied the Rangers’ lead in scoring with 26 points (three goals, 23 assists), which is second in the NHL among defensemen.
New York (13-12-2) hosts the Dallas Stars at Madison Square Garden on Tuesday (7 p.m. ET; Victory+, MSG 2).
“Obviously, it’s not easy to replace ‘Foxy’ for so many reasons,” Rangers coach Mike Sullivan said after practice Monday. “I’m sure I’m stating the obvious when I say this, but we’re going to make a game plan based on the guys we have to try to set our group up for success.”
Fox is also a candidate to play for the United States at the Olympic Winter Games in Milan Cortina 2026 in February. It is not yet clear whether this injury will affect his status for Team USA, which will be coached by Sullivan.
To replace Fox, Braden Schneider will move to the top defense pairing and take his place as a right-handed shot next to Vladislav Gavrikov.
New York’s first power-play unit will feature five forwards. Artemi Panarin will move to the point where Fox usually plays.
Sullivan said the Rangers will have to stay honest on the power play with Panarin at the point of a five-forward unit that also includes Mika Zibanejad, Vincent Trocheck, JT Miller and Will Quill. He emphasized what they’ve been talking about all season about attacking down the face-off dots on the power play and the need to focus on that without Fox as a defensive savvy at the top.
“I’ll try to play more safe at the top, but I also can’t be too conservative because it probably won’t work out that way,” Panarin said. “The NHL is not an easy league. You have to take risks sometimes.”
Panarin, who is tied with Fox for the team lead with 26 points, is the option to replace Fox at the point on the power play due to their similar ability to see and distribute up the ice.
“The two obvious ones would probably be him and Micah,” Sullivan said. “Micah can really shoot it. I think ‘Brad’ sees it really well. He’s also really good at receiving pucks. His ability to get pucks to the net in areas of the rink that we want to get to is a special quality he’s good at.”
Schneider’s even-strength ice time should also increase with Fox stepping into the role next to Gavrikov. Schneider plays 15:58 per game at even strength. Fox played 20:03, second on the team behind Gavrikov’s 20:34.
“It (stinks) to see Adam fall down. You don’t want that to happen because he’s been so good this year, but yes, this is an opportunity to step up and see if I can put on the big boy pants and get things done for us,” Schneider said. “I’ll try my best to play fast, work hard and play the game I know how to play, and hopefully we can get some wins.”
Rangers forward Adam Edstrom missed practice Monday morning and is practicing day-to-day with a lower-body injury. Brennan Othman was recalled from Hartford of the American Hockey League.
New York also were without forward Taylor Raddish, who missed practice due to personal reasons.
“I think we really have to take a deeper look at our team identity and our individual identities,” Schneider said. “Obviously, we’re not going to fill that hole (left by Fox). He’s one of the best offensive defensemen in the league, and it’s a tough position to fill, but we can make sure we’re doing our job to the best of our abilities, and that’s breaking the puck, that’s defending hard, that’s getting the puck into the hands of our forwards and seeing what we can do to get shots.
“I think if we can do that and make sure we’re really digging in and being strong defensively, those offensive things will come for us. But you’re not going to fill that hole.”
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