NEW YORK — Midway through the third period Tuesday, with the New York Rangers holding a two-goal lead against the St. Louis Blues, forward Jake Neighbours gained control of the puck near New York’s net. Goalie Dylan Garand squared toward him, so Neighbours tried to slide a pass to a waiting Dalibor Dvorský, who looked like he had a perfect lane to shoot.
The pass never reached Dvorský’s stick. Rangers defenseman Scott Morrow, playing in his second game of the season, poked the puck away.
“I kind of gave him the passing lane, because he was on his off side there,” the 24-year-old said after the Rangers’ 3-1 win. “You can kind of read when they’re opening up to make the pass. Just tried to bait him into it.”
The well-placed stick wasn’t one of New York’s flashiest highlights of the night, but it was the type of subtle play teams need to win close games. Had the puck gotten through, Dvorsky might’ve scored, and suddenly the Blues would’ve been within a goal.
“It felt good,” said Morrow, generally known more for his offensive abilities than defensive ones. “Especially in the third period when it was a tight game.”
“I think his stick detail, disrupting plays, getting his stick on the puck, I think that continues to evolve and get better,” coach Mike Sullivan added. “I think he’s making great reads defensively. I think the two-on-one was a great example of it.”
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Morrow’s 2026-27 season began in limbo. The Rangers used the same six defensemen in each of their first 14 games, and Morrow — stuck behind Adam Fox, Sean Durzi and Braden Schneider on the right side — wasn’t in that group. The Rangers opted not to put him on waivers, which would have risked losing him for nothing, so he watched from the press box as a healthy scratch.
“I can’t imagine it’s easy to practice, get bagged a little after and just wait for your chance,” Fox said.
With Durzi dealing with an undisclosed injury, Morrow finally got a chance at game action in Sunday’s loss to the Oilers, then Tuesday’s game against the Blues. The limited sample (only 14:04 per game in sheltered minutes) has gone well. He had an assist against Edmonton, then was on the ice for two New York goals Tuesday against St. Louis, though he also committed a minor penalty. In his minutes, the Rangers led 32-22 in shot attempts and 16-13 in shots on goal, per Natural Stat Trick.
In total, his small-but-solid body of work has been enough to warrant a conversation about whether he deserves to stay in the lineup even when everyone is healthy.
“He brings a lot of offense jumping up in the rush, so I think sometimes you can overlook the defense,” forward Will Cuylle said after the Blues game. “But obviously has a couple big plays, having a good stick there (on the two-on-one). I think he’s been really good the last two games. … Tough to come in like that and step up, but I think he’s been great.”
The Rangers acquired Morrow, a 2021 second-round pick, from the Carolina Hurricanes in the 2025 summer as part of the K’Andre Miller trade. The young defenseman failed to stick full-time in the NHL his first season with the Rangers, playing more games with AHL Hartford (34) than New York (29).
“I think last year I played way too tentative (offensively),” said Morrow, who has five shots in two games this season. “Over the summer it was definitely something; when I look back at my season, I wish I was a little bit more aggressive. I’m glad that side of my game is coming out a bit.”
Added Sullivan: “His pace is better. I think he’s quicker and he’s closing onto people.”
The Rangers classified Durzi’s injury as day-to-day, and he’s not a healthy scratch possibility. So if Sullivan wants to keep Morrow in, he’d have to bump someone else out.
Rookie Alberts Šmits has experienced growing pains at the NHL level: Mason McTavish blew past him for one of the Blues’ best chances Tuesday, and the 18-year-old is worst among Rangers defensemen in expected goal share, per Natural Stat Trick. He’s a left shot, though, so removing him from the lineup would mean playing someone else — potentially Schneider — on their off side, which Sullivan is loath to do. And what would coming out of the lineup mean for Šmits? A one-game reset watching from the press box? Some time in Hartford? He was the No. 5 pick in the 2026 draft, so New York will rightly do whatever it believes is right for his development. That very well could be playing through his struggles at the NHL level.
Schneider would be the other possibility. He leads the team in penalty kill minutes, though, and Sullivan presumably wouldn’t trust Morrow against as difficult competition. Schneider, a restricted free agent after this season, is also a potential trade candidate, and it’s unclear how a healthy scratch would impact his value. All of that must come into consideration.
For now, all Morrow can do is build off his showing the past two games. He said he wants to play with more physicality. That’s hard to replicate during in-season practices when battle drills are rare. But he feels he’s removed some of the tentativeness that plagued his game last season.
“You’ve got to be ready to make plays when they present themselves and not second-guess yourself,” he said. “I’ve made some mistakes, and I think this year I’ve done a better job of washing those away and not letting those affect me with my confidence with the puck.”
