NEW YORK _ Hours before they are to take on the Boston Bruins in the third game of their five-game homestand, the Rangers announced Wednesday that they have traded rugged forward Cody McLeod to the Nashville Predators for a seventh-round pick in the 2020 NHL draft. The Rangers called up Vinni Lettieri from their Hartford farm team to fill the roster spot.
McLeod, 34, returns to Nashville a little more than a year after the Rangers claimed the enforcer off waivers from the Predators in January 2018. He played a total of 56 games for the Rangers, scoring one goal, collecting two assists, with 99 penalty minutes. This season, he had a goal and 60 penalty minutes in 31 games. He had played in 16 straight games before being scratched for the Rangers' 4-3 overtime loss to the L.A. Kings on Monday.
Lettieri, who made the Rangers out of training camp, played 16 games, mostly on the fourth line, and did not score a goal or an assist for the Rangers. At Hartford, he played in 29 games and scored 12 goals with 15 assists for 27 points.
