As time passes, and we avidly follow our favorite sports teams, a multitude of players come and go. While we may recall them during their time with the team, some slip through the crevices of our memory, only to resurface through a nostalgic memory or an old piece of media, causing us to reconnect their faces and names with the iconic Rangers uniform.
Among the hallowed names like Messier, Leetch, Giacomin, Lundqvist, and others, there are those more unknown Rangers, such as Pascal Dupuis and Ilkka Heikkinen, Enver Lisin, and others who may have faded from our recollection. As we traverse the regular season, we’ll delve into a few of these “Forgotten Rangers” On this edition of Forgotten Rangers, a guy whose name rhymes with frog and a Brad.
Jason Krog, Forward
Time with Rangers: 9 games during the 2006-07 season
During the 2006-07 season, Jason Krog’s stint with the Rangers comprised just nine games. Back when I was a kid, I used to “cleverly” associate Krog’s name with “Frog” (kudos to my young self for that insight), ensuring I’d never forget it. However, his time with the Rangers proved rather unremarkable.
After a period in Junior hockey and four years at the University of New Hampshire, Krog’s career saw him shuttling between the NHL and minor leagues, including stints with the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim and the New York Islanders. While in Anaheim, during the 2002-03 season, he played in 67 games and achieved personal bests with 10 goals, 15 assists, and 25 points. He also had a noteworthy playoff run with the Mighty Ducks, making it to the Finals against the eventual Stanley Cup champions, the New Jersey Devils.
During the 2004-05 lockout season, Krog took his talents to Switzerland and extended his European journey by playing in Sweden for another season. Krog made his NHL return in an Atlanta Thrashers jersey but was waived after just 14 games. The New York Rangers claimed him on January 12th, 2007.
Krog’s stint in New York consisted of a mere nine games, in which he managed to score two goals. That was the extent of his tenure with the Rangers. He was subsequently placed on waivers again and reclaimed by the aforementioned Thrashers. Krog continued his career with stints in the minor leagues, playing for Manitoba and Chicago, where he put up respectable numbers and clinched a Calder Cup with the Wolves in 2008. After 2011, Krog’s hockey journey took him back to Sweden, with a few stops in Austria and France.
The sole enduring memory I have of Jason Krog, apart from his cool name, is that he briefly shared the ice with Jaromir Jagr.
Brad Isbister, Forward
Time with Rangers: 19 games during the 2006-07 campaign
This particular player is someone I mistakenly thought had a longer tenure than he did. Additionally, if there was one name I relished hearing Sam Rosen say, it was Brad Isbister. Having previously played for the New York Islanders, Boston Bruins, and Edmonton Oilers, Isbister was traded to the New York Rangers just a month into the 2006 season by the Carolina Hurricanes, who had signed him in the offseason.
Isbister spent most of that season with the Rangers’ AHL affiliate, the Hartford Wolf Pack. However, he did appear in 19 games with the big club, where he notched one goal and four assists. For some reason, he always caught my eye on the ice, and it seemed like he made a valuable contribution to the bottom six when needed.
Following his time with the Rangers, Isbister headed to Vancouver and later played in the Swiss league before retiring after the 2008-09 hockey season.
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