At the moment New York Rangers center Sam Carrick flings a puck deep into opponents’ territory, a hockey symphony begins.
The gliding puck signals the start of a high-stakes foot race, unleashing Carrick’s thundering young wingers: 6-foot-7 Adam Edström and 6-foot-9 Matt Rempe — or, “the Towers,” as some teammates call them.
Opposing defensemen have little choice but to turn their backs, skate as fast as they can, and hope to avoid looming danger. As they build toward the booming crescendo, a chorus of warnings rings out.
“You can hear their whole bench yelling, ‘Heads up!’” said Carrick, the steady veteran on the only Rangers’ line that’s remained intact through the first seven games of the 2025-26 season. “Because everyone knows. Everyone in the building knows that there’s going to be a collision.”
Rempe also notices the helpless cries, but his ears are drawn to the rising sound from the stands.
“When I’m coming in from the red line, you hear the crowd starting to come up,” said the 23-year-old, raising his arms like a conductor. “I’m like, ‘I gotta be careful here!’”
The chip-and-chase play is commonplace around the NHL, but few perform it with the same captivating effect as what Rangers coach Mike Sullivan has deemed his “momentum line.” Together, they turn every shift into what Carrick described as “controlled chaos.”
“Every time I dump it in and send Remps in there for a forecheck, there’s something that kind of lights up in their head: ‘Oh, s–t! I’m gonna get hit here,’” Edström said. “We just want to get the puck. If we don’t have a clear entry, we’re just trying to get it deep. And from there, we’re just trying to bang bodies, get the puck back, and then we want to be heavy to play against. All three of us enjoy playing that kind of game. It’s more of a gritty game.
“It’s a lot of fun – and a lot of adrenaline, too.”
Adam Edstrom, left, and Matt Rempe have become inseparable. (Bruce Bennett / Getty Images)
Whether it’s driving to the rink, chatting at their neighboring lockers, or bouncing between apartments on their shared floor, Edström and Rempe do just about everything together these days. It’s hard to miss the Rangers’ newest bromance.
“We’re attached at the hip,” said Rempe, grinning. “He’s my best buddy.”
Despite coming from two very different cultures almost 4,000 miles apart — Edström in Karlstad, Sweden and Rempe in Calgary, Alberta — they’ve grown to be inseparable. The friendship blossomed during their shared time with AHL Hartford, mainly during the 2023-24 season, but it’s taken off in the past year.
When Rempe decided to stick around for the offseason and train at Prentiss Hockey Performance in Stamford, Conn., Edström offered up his place. By the time the 25-year-old Swede returned from his own summer training back home, he had convinced Rempe to sign a lease for a unit down the hall.
“We go back and forth (between apartments),” Rempe said. “His fiancée cooks a lot of dinners, and I go over there for a lot of Swedish candy. They always have it over there. It’s sweet.”
Rempe munches on candy while watching TV from Edström’s couch — FX’s “Sons of Anarchy” is one of their favorites — and recently returned the favor by offering to cook at his place. “He made a pretty good steak,” Edström said, but there was a dearth of side dishes.
“I don’t need vegetables,” Rempe said, laughing.
All that extra time together leads to open-ended dialogue about anything going on in their lives, hockey or otherwise. It’s a bond they believes carries over into every shift.
“These last couple of years, we’ve built a relationship where we can pretty much talk about anything,” Edström said. “I think that goes a long way off the ice. If there’s things in the game that I have thoughts about or whatever, I know I can always go to Remps and we can talk about it and figure it out together. And then just pushing each other. We’re all growing. We kind of talked about it that first year when we got called up together. ‘We can really make an impact in this league.’ And we’re trying to show that every night.”
Carrick is at a very different stage in his life, which he joked has kept him from joining his linemates for some of their off-ice escapades.
“When I was in my early 20s, for sure, I’d be all over that,” he said. “But I’ve got a family now, three kids.”
The Stouffvile, Ontario native didn’t break through as an NHL regular until he was nearly 30, but he’s found a home after landing a three-year deal in New York two summers ago. Now 33, Carrick has assumed the role of what a smirking Rempe described as “the old, wise mentor on our line.” Sullivan called him “the anchor.”
“He’s just so reliable,” Rempe added. “No matter how it’s going, he’s always even-keeled with us. It’s always positive. He’s just a rock for us – always talking to us on the bench, making plays for us to call between shifts.”
Carrick’s calming influence seems to be rubbing off. After racking up 138 penalty minutes through his first 59 NHL games, Rempe has only been whistled for one penalty through seven contests this season. Edström hasn’t been called for any — but that doesn’t mean they’re playing passive. The line has combined for 51 clean hits, with Carrick encouraging them to harness their aggression rather than tamp it down.
“One thing that I believe in is, if we’re gonna make mistakes, let’s make aggressive mistakes,” he said. “I’m never trying to reel them in. If anything, it’s the other way, where you’re trying to drag your teammates into the fight.”
Carrick noted the contrasting personalities on the line, with he and Edström “a little quieter outside of the rink” while Rempe is the “wiry” one who’s always oozing excitement. “I can feed off that,” he said. But his wingers say the 6-foot, 202-pound grinder with 56 career fights on his résumé — including a momentum-changing tilt with Arber Xhekaj in Saturday’s 4-3 win over the Montreal Canadiens — brings plenty of passion in his own right.
“He might look calm on the surface,” Edström said. “But he’s a fiery guy on the inside.”
The trio felt they were on the ascent last season until injury disrupted their momentum. Edström suffered a lower-body ailment on Feb. 1 that would require surgery and end his rookie season prematurely.
Still, Rangers’ brass liked what they saw enough to envision a reunion upon Edström’s return. Once Sullivan was hired in May, he and his staff began to lay out a plan for how they’d be deployed. That objective has been communicated daily through meetings, video review and on-ice reinforcement.
“We’re trying to help them learn how to play to their strengths,” Sullivan said.
The coach described it as “a simple formula” that allows them to play fast and free. It’s a streamlined version of the direct, puck-pursuit system he wants the entire team to lean into.
“When they play a north-south, straight-ahead game, they play behind defensemen, they get in and establish a forecheck, it allows them to use their physicality to their advantage,” he said. “That’s clearly an advantage that they have with their size and their strength. I think they’re buying into that.”
Over it time, the repeated pounding is designed to wear opponents down and, as Sullivan put it, “create anxiety out there.”
The players say they can sense it, with opposing defensemen often more concerned with avoiding the hit than recovering the loose puck.
“When I’m coming in there a lot of times now, the D-men are just trying to get out of the way, so the puck’s just there,” Rempe said. “Eddy and Sam are coming in behind, and they just take the puck because the D-man is leaving it. … Eddy and I have kind of built up (a reputation) on the forecheck, so guys know that me and him are coming every shift. It’s cool because it leads to a lot of turnovers.”
Those turnovers lead to more time with the puck. “And the byproduct is to generate a lot of offense,” Sullivan said.
Edström, Carrick and Rempe’s forechecking fortitude has yielded promising results so far and made them the Rangers’ most consistent possession line. Their 60.8% expected goals-for rate ranks first on the team among lines that have logged at least 25 minutes, according to MoneyPuck, while Natural Stat Trick has them with a decisive 16-5 edge in the all-important high-danger scoring chances category. They swarm the net front and battle for inside positioning, which has led to three of New York’s six-best totals for individual HD chances at five-on-five. Carrick is off to an especially strong start in that regard, tying Mika Zibanejad for second with nine iHDCF to go along with three assists. Edström and Rempe aren’t far behind, with seven and six iHDCF at 5v5, respectively.
It’s only led to two goals, but that’s tied for the most by any Rangers’ trio. On a team that’s struggled to generate even-strength goals at the onset of a new season, they’ve been an undeniable bright spot.
“It’s been a blast,” Carrick said. “We’re gelling well together. All three of us know what our skill set is, and I think we’re taking advantage of it and creating some chances just by being physical and wearing teams down. Towards the end of the game, things start to change, and guys are starting to get a little sick of getting hit. That’s where our offense is going to come from.”
Their success has merited a noticeable uptick in usage. Rempe was limited to an average of just 8:30 time on ice per game in 2024-25, with previous coach Peter Laviolette often cutting down his minutes or benching him altogether late in games. But he’s at 11:13 and climbing this season, as Sullivan’s trust expands with each game.
“It’s increased a lot,” Sullivan said. “As we say to the players all the time, performance matters, and those guys, they’re performing.”
It’s been common to see Edström, Carrick and Rempe come over the boards in the third period, regardless of score or situation. Those are meaningful shifts, particularly for two young wingers who are out to prove they can be dependable all-around players.
“Being put out there and in a spot like that shows a lot of confidence in us,” Edström said. “You always want to be out there when you’re chasing a game, or when you’re in the lead. That’s where you win games, right? It’s a good spot to be in.”
Most games they’ve been the Rangers’ third-most-used trio, leading Sullivan to poke fun at a recent question that referred to them as the fourth line. The order matters less than their impact, and that’s been overwhelmingly positive through the first two weeks of the season.
“They’re just providing another level for our team right now. They’re outplaying their line (number),” captain J.T. Miller said. “Maybe it’s not going well for us in the top six for a couple shifts, and then all the sudden they go out and turn the tide. They’ve been doing that for us. They just play north-south. And when they play that identity, they’re a handful for teams.”