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The New York Rangers are in desperate need of some kind of spark as their follow-up season to last year’s Presidents’ Trophy campaign has fallen flat so far, and under normal circumstances, one way to create that spark would be to add some physicality to your lineup.

Who better to do that than notorious tough guy Matt Rempe?

Rempe — who has made a name for himself with bull-in-a-china-shop play in his young career — is coming back from suspension and is eligible to play on Thursday night against the New Jersey Devils.

That has become a heated rivalry, but given that Rempe has appeared in only 22 games over two seasons and has already served 12 games of suspensions, it may be best for him to steer clear of any funny business.

On Wednesday, the 22-year-old talked about needing to play smarter after serving an 8-game suspension for boarding Dallas’ Miro Heiskanen last month.

“I’ve got to still play my game, but it can’t happen again or it’s going to be a huge suspension,” Rempe said according to The Athletic‘s Peter Baugh. “I’ve got to be a lot smarter. I don’t have to make every hit, if that makes sense. I’m so big. I can get going. I’ve got to be able to pick my hits. I’ve got to make sure it’s going to be a good hit. Because I can make a big impact with that. If I’m going to make every hit, some of them are risky.”

It’s great to see that Rempe has learned from his mistakes (or at least says he has) because the hit on Heiskanen was one of those instances where it couldn’t have been more obvious that the right decision would have been to pull up and not hit him.

Of course, the forearm to the back of the head, but Rempe’s size presents some challenges, which he acknowledged.

“Guys are trying to duck out of the way at the last second, and I’m so big that if I catch a piece or something like that, I’m gone 20 games, he said. “I can’t let anything like that happen. I’ve got to be a bit more controlled.”

We’ll see how it goes when he hits the ice against the Devils, in what is likely to be a pretty testy game as per usual.