How Rangers prospect Scott Morrow could upgrade plodding defense corps

New York Rangers coach sullivan" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">Mike Sullivan spoke at the team’s breakup day in April about his desire to add speed and puck-moving abilities to their blue line this offseason. The club sure could use someone like K’Andre Miller, who blossomed since the Rangers traded him to the Stanley Cup Finalist Carolina Hurricanes last summer. But perhaps one of the players acquired in that deal could be an answer.

Scott Morrow was more than a throw-in to the July 1 swap when the Rangers received what turned out to be the 26th overall pick in this year’s NHL Draft, along with a 2026 second-rounder. The 23-year-old, who was highly regarded within the Hurricanes organization, boasts size (6-foot-2, 210 pounds), skill and the skating and offensive potential to push the pace from the back end that Sullivan craves.

Morrow, who landed a C- grade in our end-of-season Rangers report cards, looked young and raw at times in 29 games on Broadway this season, recording only six assists with no goals. His underlying metrics, however, were promising – a 50.4 expected goal share, per Natural Stat Trick. That’s good, because it’s possible that the Rangers will really need Morrow, who’s recorded one goal and 11 assists in 45 career NHL games, next season.

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That’s because there is a chance the club trades fellow right-shooter Braden Schneider. Like Miller, Schneider’s another young defender who so far has failed to pop in a Rangers sweater, and perhaps he’ll be moved in a deal to move up from No. 5 in the draft, or to acquire a desperately-needed young top-six forward. If that happens, and absent any outside additions, that puts Morrow squarely in line to compete for an open spot on his natural side. With no other viable right-shooting options, Morrow would in theory have an edge in the competition to win the job.

Doing so will take more than that, of course. It’s Morrow’s ability to carry the puck up ice with speed, combined with what would need to be improved effectiveness in his own zone, that Sullivan needs to see in order to give the 40th pick in the 2021 draft the assignment.

Morrow is a native of Darien, Connecticut, about 45 miles from Madison Square Garden However, he played more games in the capital city of his home state in 2025-26 than he did in Manhattan, recording five goals and 14 assists in 34 contests for Hartford of the AHL. Still, the extended NHL cameo this season indicates that the Rangers, like the Hurricanes, think highly of what he might become.

“We really like Scotty’s game. He’s learning on the job, so to speak, and what better way than experiential learning,” Sullivan said Dec. 6 after Morrow’s seventh game of the season, a 3-2 overtime home loss to the Colorado Avalanche. “And so he’s a young defensemen, it’s not an easy position to play in this league, and we think he’s doing a really good job. What we like about his game is he has good poise with the puck, he sees [the play] pretty well, he can make outlet passes, he can join the rush, he’s got a pretty decent shot from the blue line.”

If Schneider is traded, the timing for Morrow’s theoretical ascension will be perfect. Can he take a big step in 2026-27, the way another young Rangers defenseman, Matthew Robertson, did this season? In the case of the 25-year-old Robertson, he served a much longer apprenticeship in the minors – playing 250 games with Hartford to Morrow’s 86 total AHL contests. The organization wasn’t expecting much out of the 2019 second-round pick before he emerged to play 72 games and record 18 points, looking like a possible steady third- or second-pair solution with room to grow. Sullivan came to trust Robertson, using him in overtimes and in matchups with opponents’ top-six forward units.

If Morrow can find a home on the third pair to start, he could also find himself plying his power-play quarterbacking skills on the second unit – another example of where his timing with the Rangers could be spot on. Artemi Panarin used to man the point with Adam Fox on PP1, but with Panarin traded to the Los Angeles Kings, it stands to reason that Sullivan might pick a different forward for that assignment. Sullivan subsequently might take a look at what Morrow can do with man-advantage time, even if it’s very abbreviated on the second unit.

The coach, in fact, also spoke about using Morrow on the power play in the future during the Dec. 6 news conference. At the time, though, Sullivan said he wasn’t confident enough in Morrow to deploy him with any regularity in that situation. Fox sustained two injuries that led to extended absences totaling 27 games, the first of which cost him 14 games from Dec. 2-29 and resulted in a very rough run for the Rangers power play. The coach initially elected to try using five forwards on PP1 instead – an arrangement that proved flawed, with the unit looking uncertain and struggling to generate goals with the man advantage while being highly susceptible to opposing chances.

Sullivan did insert Morrow onto the top power-play unit mid-game against the Chicago Blackhawks on Dec. 10, though it made little difference. After the five-forward group allowed a short-handed tally in the second period, Morrow got the call, although the Rangers still were 0-for-3 with the man advantage in a 3-0 loss. Morrow was given other opportunities to handle to the point on the power play when Fox was out the first time and did little to distinguish himself. The Blueshirts, who tried multiple alignments on PP1 with Fox down, gave up four short-handed goals during that first Fox absence, and were 6-for-39 (15.3 percent) on the power play – well below their season mark of 24.7.

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Despite his failure to spell Fox on the power play, though, the Rangers remain desperate for Morrow’s skill set. For all of Fox’s elite play-driving abilities, the 2021 Norris Trophy winner doesn’t make that happen with his skating. Holdovers Vladislav Gavrikov, Will Borgen, Schneider, Robertson, and Urho Vaakanainen are the other members of a defense corps that possesses essentially no speed at a time in the NHL when having a fast, puck-carrying defenseman is as vital as it’s ever been. Robertson, in fact, might be the most mobile member of the Rangers defense as currently constructed.

If the Rangers remain in their No. 5 draft slot in June – the most likely scenario – they’ll probably be choosing from among a versatile group of defensemen, as top forward prospects Gavin McKenna, Ivar Stenberg and Caleb Malhotra could be off the board by then. Even if the Rangers select an offense-focused blueliner, however, it’s unlikely that the player will make any real impact on the 2026-27 team – and might not play for the Rangers at all next season.

The inability to develop young players properly is apparent to observers and a sore point for Rangers fans in recent years. Miller’s rise with Carolina triggered more of that sentiment, although at least some of that may be due to him being a much better fit in the Hurricanes’ relentless, man-on-man puck pressure style.

The Blueshirts, though, hit on Robertson last season – whether they foresaw that developmental leap coming or not. Can that occur for them with a young defenseman for a second straight season? If Sullivan hopes for a more mobile, offense-oriented presence on his blue line in 2026-27, he might have to look to Morrow to make it happen.