"He's in," Vigneault said.
Hayes's status is unknown, with Vigneault stating Hayes arrived at practice today but was unable to skate and was given a maintenance day.
Vigneault said his skating hasn't been what it was when he returned to the lineup on Jan. 25 in San Jose following a six-game absence due to a contusion.
"Hayes hasn't skated - for me - has not skated as well as he did when he came back in San Jose," Vigneault said. "He had that full week of recovery and it's been eight games, so I would say tomorrow he would be less than 50 percent that he's going to play. He couldn't practice today, so I'm not quite sure what the story is there."
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While he's not expected to play this weekend, defenseman Marc Staal practiced with his teammates for the first time since sustaining cervical strain in Nashville on Feb. 3 that's kept him out of the last six games.
"Skated for a couple days before," he said. "I wasn't sure I was going to practice today, but felt good. Starting to feel good and trying to get back into it and get the body ready to go."
Staal said the injury is behind him and now it's a matter of conditioning before he's back in the lineup. He's been able to work out during the injury by riding the bike and skating on his own
"I feel good. Probably need a few more skates in and see how it goes next week and try and get back in," Staal said. "Take it day-by-day, but I felt good today."
Vigneault said backup goaltender Alexandar Georgiev was slated to make his NHL debut Saturday in Ottawa, but came down with the flu.
With Georgiev out, the Rangers will recall a goaltender from Hartford later on today, and to make room for the recall, the team assigned forward Vinni Lettieri to the American Hockey League.
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Rangers' lines at practice
Rick Nash - Mika Zibanejad - Mats Zuccarello
Michael Grabner - J.T. Miller - Pavel Buchnevich
Jimmy Vesey - David Desharnais - Jesper Fast
Paul Carey - Peter Holland - Cody McLeod
Nick Holden - Tony DeAngelo
Brady Skjei - Neal Pionk
John Gilmour - Ryan Sproul
