The Rangers' season will end in a few weeks, but it's already over for Jesper Fast.

Fast had been playing through a shoulder injury over the last few weeks, and perhaps even the past couple of months, according to Larry Brooks of the New York Post.

Ultimately, the team decided it wasn't necessary for the 27-year-old to continue playing through the injury. Rangers coach David Quinn hopes Fast will not have to undergo surgery during the offseason.

"It was tough," Quinn told the Post. "He got a little worse and our situation changed as time went on."

Fast first suffered a shoulder injury on Dec. 14 against the Coyotes and proceeded to miss the next five games. Once he returned, though, he only missed one game until the Rangers' contest against Pittsburgh on Monday, despite hardly participating in practice, Brooks reported.

The Swedish native scored eight goals and notched 12 assists through 66 games this year. With the Rangers sitting in seventh place in the Metropolitan Division -- well out of playoff contention -- and only seven games remaining, the decision to shut down Fast appears prudent.

But Quinn maintained the loss of Fast down the stretch will still be significant, and the hope is that he will return to full health by the start of the 2019-2020 season.

"The ultimate pro, as coachable a human being and as team [oriented] a guy as you could ever have on your roster," the coach told the Post. "He's invaluable to us. I always had heard great things about him but he far exceeded anything that I had heard."

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