Ryan Lindgren named Players' Player Award winner by Rangers teammates

GREENBURGH, N.Y. — Patrick Kane was, by his own admission, shocked.

The splashy trade deadline acquisition was sitting on the Rangers’ bench Monday during overtime in what would eventually be a 3-2 shootout loss to the Sabres when Jeff Skinner wound up and fired a slap shot.

Ryan Lindgren blocked it. With his face.

 “I think I even looked at someone and [said] ‘He’s done. It’s got to be a broken jaw,’ ” Kane said after the team announced Lindgren was named the Players’ Player Award winner Wednesday. The award is given to the player who “best exemplifies what it means to be a team player.” 

Lindgren also won the award in the 2020-21 season.

“It means a lot,” Lindgren said after practice at the MSG Training Center. “To have the guys in this locker room vote on it and vote for me, it’s pretty special. It’s an honor and it means a lot for sure.”

The fifth-year defenseman, who was presented with the Steven McDonald Extra Effort Award before the loss to Buffalo, has become an indispensable component for the Rangers (47-21-13), who finish their regular season Thursday at the Garden against the Maple Leafs. 

In 62 games this season, Lindgren has accumulated 92 blocked shots, 67 hits and 13 takeaways to go with a goal and 17 assists. 

But as Adam Fox pointed out to Newsday, Lindgren’s contributions to the Rangers’ success are by example rather than being solely statistical. 

“It’s game 81,” said Fox, Lindgren’s partner on the first defense pair. “It’s not really changing our [playoff] standing too much and he’s not going to let them get an easy goal there. He’s not going to get out of the way. So I didn’t [want] to see it but that’s the way he’s going to play.”  

Along with Lindgren, Mika Zibanejad was voted team MVP for the second time by the reporters who cover the team. Zibanejad had previously won the award in 2018-19.

“You look around the locker room [and] you have a lot of MVPs here,” said Zibanejad, who leads the team in goals with 39 and also has 51 assists. “As a whole, how we play, I think everyone — everyone — plays their role and everyone is important. So, yeah, [there are] a lot of good options in this locker room. It could have gone to anyone.”

It is a fair point. On a team with Igor Shesterkin, Fox, Jacob Trouba, K’Andre Miller, Artemi Panarin and Chris Kreider, among others, choices were plentiful.

Still, winning team MVP was not something the 29-year old set out to do.  

“I don’t know what it does to me,” Zibanejad said. “I don’t know what it does for me in terms of should I be happy now? I don’t know. It’s a team game and we want to win. As long as we win and go far and, ultimately, hopefully win the Stanley Cup, [then this] stuff [doesn’t] matter at all.”

Filip Chytil won the John Halligan Good Guy Award for cooperation with the media. It is Chytil’s first time winning the award.