If his priority was playing in the NHL he would take the conditioning stint and earn his way on an NHL roster so he could play in the NHL.
He obviously likes Switzerland better than the NHL. Easy vs Hard. He chose easy. Hence, not a priority.
He cleared waivers, meaning no other team wanted him and was far far back on the depth chart here. He wasn't even in line to be a first call-up.
We have 2 spares on the roster, Hayes and Malone he's already behind. Then, based on pre-season and coaches comments, etc, he'd almost certainly be behind
Mueller
Hrvik
Bourque
Lindberg a
and maybe even a few other guys.
You're seriously going to tell me that 6-10 guys are going to go down and then Lombardi gets his shot. He was done here, it was obvious.
Good for him and the Rangers on getting out of this. He can go back to a great career in the swiss league and the Rangers clear a completely unnecessary two year contract.
Win-Win. Hope he continues to kill it.