Rangers send Anthony Duclair back to juniors

The New York Rangers have reassigned rookie forward Anthony Duclair to the Quebec Ramparts of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League, the team announced Tuesday. 

The Rangers had previously loaned Duclair to Team Canada for the World Junior Championship, which the Canadians won on Monday. Duclair scored Canada's first goal in the gold medal game.

Duclair, 19, may not be sent down to the AHL because he has not exhausted his QMJHL eligibility. The Rangers must either keep him on their active roster or reassign him to the QMJHL. 

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"There’s a lot of components that go into making that decision," Rangers head coach Alain Vigneault said Sunday, according to the Bergen Record. "One major component that we have to consider is that if we send him down, we can’t call him up [until the end of the QMJHL season] and that team is Memorial Cup bound so you’re looking at mid-May [until Quebec’s season is over]."

Duclair was considered a longshot to make the Rangers' roster before the season but had an impressive preseason and made it through the final round of cuts. 

Duclair played in 18 games before he was loaned to the national team. He scored one goal and recorded six assists.

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- Dan Gartland