Rangers' Jimmy Vesey will try to fill void created by Adam Edstrom's injury

GREENBURGH — There are, Peter Laviolette insisted, two actualities.

The first is that the loss of Adam Edstrom for the next two-and-a-half months to three-and-a-half months with a lower-body injury is a significant loss to the Rangers.

The second is that a job has opened up for somebody on the roster.

“It’s his size, it’s his physicality, it’s his speed. You take that out, you’re going to miss it,” Laviolette said after a 40-minute practice Tuesday at the MSG Training Center. “But it’s a great opportunity for anybody else who steps into the lineup.”

Edstrom was injured in Saturday’s 6-3 loss to the Bruins in Boston. It is not known exactly when the 24-year-old suffered the injury, but his last shift came midway through the second period.

Under the timetable the Rangers announced, Edstrom would theoretically be eligible to return sometime between mid-April and mid-May.

“He’s one of my best buddies and linemates so to see him go down and be hurt, obviously it sucks,” Matt Rempe said of Edstrom, who had five goals and four assists in 51 games. He had played in every game this season before Sunday’s 4-2 win over Vegas at the Garden.

Edstrom was replaced in the lineup for Sunday’s match by Jimmy Vesey, who played in his first game since the Rangers’ 2-1 win over the Golden Knights in Las Vegas on Jan. 11.

Vesey finished Sunday’s contest with one hit in 12:24 spanning 15 shifts.

“He’s a guy I’m super comfortable playing with,” centerman Sam Carrick said of Vesey. “We get along great. We’re looking forward to playing together again, building some more chemistry . . . He’s been out a little bit but he’s had a really good attitude, really positive, and he’s been working really hard.”

Against the Golden Knights, the fourth line of Rempe, Carrick and Vesey was outshot 5-2 in 7:22 of ice time, according to Natural Stat Trick.

“I’d still like to see a little bit more with the puck from that group offensively,” Laviolette said. “Just generating. It’s a simple mindset, get it behind them, turn it over, get it on net, crash the net, good stuff like that.”

Which could solve a problem for GM Chris Drury before the March 7 trade deadline.

Following Friday night’s acquisition of J.T. Miller from Vancouver, Drury currently has $9.49 million in available space under the salary cap, according to industry database PuckPedia.com. The website projects that number will grow to $16.5 million by the deadline.

That is a positive. A negative would be if Drury has to allocate some of that space for a fourth-line left wing. Which is why it seems likely that Vesey and Arthur Kaliyev will get the first shots to fill the void left by Edstrom.

There are valid arguments to be made for both. Vesey has played in 27 games this season and has dressed for 610 games in eight-plus seasons. Kaliyev has two goals and an assist in the 10 games he has played since being claimed off waivers.

“I just [want to] play well and help the team win. We’re fighting for the playoffs here,” Vesey said. “We want to get in the playoffs.

“ . . . I’m part of the team, just going to do whatever I can to help us win games.”