Duclair returns to New York on a roll

Coyotes at Rangers

When: Thursday, 4:00 p.m.

Where: Madison Square Garden, New York

TV: FOX Sports Arizona

Radio: ESPN 620 AM

Scouting the Rangers: Rookie C Oscar Lindberg leads New York with four goals. … Former Coyotes D Keith Yandle has four assists and is tied with five players at four points in a well-balanced lineup. … G Henrik Lundqvist (2.16 GAA, .931 save percentage) will make his seventh start of the season. … New York shut out San Jose on Monday to snap a three-game losing streak. … Despite the presence of Yandle, the Rangers power play is struggling at 11.8 percent (2-for-17) to rank 24^th in the league, just ahead of the Coyotes.

NEW YORK — Anthony Duclair isn’t expecting a warm reception when he returns to Madison Square Garden for the first time since the Rangers traded him to Arizona. He isn’t expecting a cool reception either when the Coyotes play the Rangers on Thursday.

“I’m not expecting anything,” Duclair said Tuesday night after the Coyotes’ 3-2 loss to the New Jersey Devils at Prudential Center. “I’m 20 years old. I haven’t established myself in the league yet so we’ll see what happens.”

Rangers fans are knowledgeable hockey fans. They’ll be aware of what the rookie right wing has already accomplished in a Coyotes uniform. Through six games, Duclair has five goals to lead all NHL rookies in that category and points (7) through Tuesday’s games. His five goals put him in a seven-way tie for second place in overall NHL scoring, one behind Dallas’s Jamie Benn.

“I’m just getting my chances,” said Duclair, who scored off a nifty feed from Max Domi early in the third period against the Devils. “I’m being put in situations where I can produce offensively. I’m playing with some great players: Marty (Hanzal), (Tobias Rieder), sometimes Max — you know, just different situations where I can use my speed and produce offensively.”

Speed and skill are what led the Rangers to select Duclair with their third-round pick (80^th overall) in 2013. But with New York in the hunt for a Stanley Cup last season after a run to the Finals the previous year, GM Glen Sather wanted some help for the power play. He wanted an offensive catalyst on the blue line, so the Coyotes sent defenseman Keith Yandle, defenseman Chris Summers and a 2016 fourth-round pick to New York for Duclair, a 2016 first-round pick, a 2015 second-round pick and defenseman John Moore.

“Sometimes, to get a good player you’ve got to give good players and good young prospects. That’s what we did there,” Rangers coach Alain Vigneault said Wednesday with a smile as he thought about Duclair. “I love the Duke. He’s a good kid. He’s a hard working kid.”

Vigneault said he watched a little bit of the Coyotes game on Tuesday, but his mind was elsewhere.

“To tell you the truth, I was watching a little bit more of the Mets last night. I’m in the Mets camp right now,” Vigneault said to a chorus of laughter at the Rangers’ practice facility in Tarrytown. “There’s no doubt that the skill set is there. Is (Duclair) going to be able to put it all together: his attitude, his work ethic, all those things are going to come into play? Time will tell.”

Like most first-timers, Duclair admitted that last year’s trade was a shock.

“When you’re a young player and you just get drafted, even two years later you plan on staying there for a while,” he said. “It happened so quick. It was during one of my junior games after the second period. There were no rumors or anything. It just sort of happened.”

When the initial shock wore off, however, Duclair realized he would have a greater opportunity with the Coyotes than he would with a team so close to a Cup.

“For me coming here, they’re pushing younger and I’m getting some ice time with the young guys,” he said. “It’s a perfect fit for me.”

Duclair understands that fans are excited about what he and Domi are doing together, but he’s trying to follow the sage advice of veterans like captain Shane Doan and not let daily events impact his “altitude.”

“Things are rolling right now but I know that I’m not going to win the Rocket Richard Trophy or whatever,” Duclair said, laughing. “I’m never a guy to check the stats. I just want to come to the rink every day and work hard.”

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