The New York Rangers announced on Sunday that Chris Kreider is day-to-day with an upper-body injury. UPDATE: Chris Kreider (upper body, day-to-day) will not play today. Kreider will not play in the Rangers’ Sunday afternoon matchup against the Chicago Blackhawks.

The Rangers ruled out Chris Kreider for Sunday’s game against the Blackhawks and the forward is considered day-to-day with an upper-body injury.

Chris Kreider, a healthy scratch for the first time since John Tortorella’s reign behind the bench ended following 2012-13, is no victim.

The New York Rangers fueled speculation as they scratched Chris Kreider from the lineup against their Hudson River rivals, the New Jersey Devils. Kreider was asked about it Friday by Newsday's Colin Stephenson.

What exactly does this mean for his future in New York? Rangers general manager Chris Drury sent a league-wide memo a couple of weeks ago, specifically mentioning Kreider as a pla

That hadn’t been the case recently, though, at least not to most folks’ memory. Not until Peter Laviolette left the 33-year-old Kreider out of the lineup that faced the Devils on Monday, in the Rangers’ final game before the NHL’s holiday break.

Kreider is currently in year 5 of a 7 year deal that sees him earning an average annual value of $6.5 million per season, and as a well respected NHL veteran, and one of the Rangers very best players in recent years, I suspect there would be a great deal of demand for his services if he were indeed to end up being traded.