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 Corey Potter, Bobby Sanguinetti, Eric Reitz, Matt Gilroy, 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, we feature a guy who was supposed to score goals and a defenseman who was depth during playoff runs.
Enver Lisin, Right Wing
Time with Rangers: 57 games in 2009-10
Right in the midst of the new John Tortorella era, the Rangers found themselves in the midst of a retool. Following their elimination by Washington in the previous season’s playoffs, Glen Sather and the team decided to construct a roster around their newly appointed head coach.
As part of this strategy, they traded swift winger Lauri Korpikoski to Phoenix in exchange for Russian winger Enver Lisin, who had previously tallied 13 goals in 48 games for Phoenix. Recognized for his speed, excellent hands, and quick shot, the Rangers were optimistic that Lisin could contribute offensively in some capacity.
With the team in search of goal scorers and their previous season’s leading scorers, Nikolai Zherdev and Scott Gomez, no longer part of the roster, the Rangers had recently signed Marian Gaborik. They were keen on bolstering secondary scoring in the bottom six, and Lisin, being young and displaying a scoring touch, seemed like a talent worth nurturing for the team’s benefit.
Lisin fell short of the expectations set for him during his time with the Rangers, managing only 6 goals in 57 games played. The demands of John Tortorella’s system proved challenging for him, hampering his ability to deliver the offensive output the Rangers had anticipated. After the season, the Rangers opted not to extend him a contract, bringing an end to his brief stint with the team.
Subsequently, Lisin made a return to Russia, joining Salavat Yulaev Ufa in the KHL and playing for one more team before retiring in 2020.
Raphael Diaz, Defenseman, Team Switzerland
Time with Rangers: 11 Games in 2013-14, 4 playoff games during Cup run
There’s a certain allure to offensive-minded defensemen that captures my interest, and when Raphael Diaz was acquired from Vancouver on March 5th, 2014, I was intrigued. I won’t claim he was the standout defenseman on the ice, but he certainly had a knack for shooting the puck. In his initial 11 games as a Ranger, he managed one goal and one assist, all while making some contributions to the 2014 Cup run.
Diaz later moved on to Calgary, where he secured a spot on the team. Despite re-signing Diaz to a one-year, two-way contract in the summer of 2015 with the hopes of having him as a depth defenseman, he found himself buried in Hartford and made only one playoff appearance before heading overseas to Switzerland. There, he signed a five-year contract with EV Zug.
On June 2, 2017, Diaz was honored with the captaincy of EV Zug. He clinched his first NL title with Zug in 2021. Then, on January 27, 2021, Diaz signed a four-year deal with HC Fribourg-Gottéron, commencing from the 2021–22 season and extending through the 2024–25 season.
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