Rangers' Artemi Panarin goes into COVID-19 protocol

Artemi Panarin, the Rangers’ leading scorer and most dynamic offensive player, is in COVID protocol, the team announced moments before its matinee game against the Tampa Bay Lightning at Madison Square Garden Sunday.

Panarin, who has 10 goals and 26 assists in 31 games, joins defensemen Ryan Lindgren and Jarred Tinordi and penalty-killing forward Kevin Rooney on the COVID list. In addition, the Rangers announced that assistant coach Mike Kelly also is in protocol, and defenseman Patrik Nemeth was unavailable for the game because of a non-COVID issue.

Making the Rangers’ task against the two-time Stanley Cup champions even more difficult was that Lightning No. 1 goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy came off the COVID list and started for Tampa Bay. Defenseman Erik Cernak and forward Anthony Cirelli were also back in the lineup.

With Panarin in COVID protocol and Nemeth unavailable, the Rangers promoted forward Morgan Barron from the taxi squad to the active roster and inserted forward Tim Gettinger and defenseman Zac Jones into the lineup. Gettinger played on the fourth line, with Barclay Goodrow moving up to the second line to play with Ryan Strome and Alexis Lafreniere, who stepped into Panarin’s spot on left wing.

Dryden Hunt took Panarin’s spot on the third line with Filip Chytil and Julien Gauthier. Jones played on the third defense pair with fellow rookie Nils Lundkvist, while Libor Hajek moved up to the second pair with Adam Fox.

By Colin Stephenson

colin.stephenson@newsday.comColinSNewsday

Colin Stephenson covers the Rangers for Newsday. He has spent more than two decades covering the NHL and just about every sports team in the New York metropolitan area.