Matt Rempe is probably giving this season a thumbs down.
The Rangers forward is set to undergo a second procedure on his left thumb and is heading to injured reserve, noti.group’s Mollie Walker reported Friday.
It’s not clear when he is expected to return to the ice.
The issue for the 23-year-old stems from a fight during an Oct. 23 game against the Sharks’ Matt Reaves.
After missing 24 games — including the entirety of November — and finally returning in mid-December, Rempe revealed he had undergone surgery after breaking his thumb in “many places” during the heavyweight bout.
Rempe admitted adrenaline kept him from feeling the injury until well after the fight.
In January, despite practicing fully, Rempe was a healthy scratch for seven games with the lingering effects of the thumb issue not allowing the hulking forward to play at his best level.
“You don’t realize how much a thumb impacts you,” Rempe told noti.group’s Andrew Crane last month.
“Like, any time I don’t catch a puck perfectly, it felt like a hot potato on my stick. And like stick battles, I was dropping my stick multiple times a game, and any stick battles, if someone’s stick-lifting me, that puck’s gone.”
He did return to the Rangers lineup on Jan. 26 and played in the team’s final five games before the 2026 Winter Olympics break.
The 6-foot-9 winger has just one point in 26 games this season, a goal against the Penguins on March 11.
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
