Coping With Wife's Death, a Ranger Is Returning to the Ice "Dealing with the disease and what we went through, it's a lot to try and describe in one simple answer," Moore, 32, said. But one thing I'm grateful for is the time we had. In a way, those months were the most special months with each other that anyone could possibly ask for, despite it being the most difficult and painful months that anyone could possibly deal with. The Rangers first approached Moore about resuming his career when the lockout ended, a couple of weeks after his wife's death. "It was a very difficult decision to not play; at the same time, it was definitely the right decision," Moore said. The months after gave me a chance to regroup and to clear my head. As anyone who has cared for someone who's had cancer knows, it's a battle that the whole family is in. It's something that, after you've been through that, you need some time to reorganize, and, I don't know what the right word is - regroup. Moore, who lives in Boston (he and his wife attended Harvard), stayed in shape by skating and cross-training with the Harvard tennis team. He also organized the second edition of Smashfest, a charity table-tennis tournament in Toronto. Last year the proceeds benefited concussion research. This year's will benefit cancer research through the Katie Moore Foundation, which he established. Moore, who signed a one-year contract, returns to the team with whom he began his N.H.L. career in 2003. He was traded to Pittsburgh before the start of the 2006-7 season and has also played for Minnesota, Toronto, Buffalo, Florida, Montreal, Tampa Bay and San Jose. Moore, who will center a checking line, said that Henrik Lundqvist was the only player left from his lone full season with the club. "I can't wait to be his teammate again," Moore said. He said it was "hard to know" how he would adjust after sitting out a season. Moore said he did not want to think too far ahead, a philosophy he said was shaped by his wife's courage in the face of an aggressive illness, and by dealing with his own grief at her loss. "One thing this process has taught me is, everything one day at a time," he said. Basically that's what I've been doing in general, just living one day at a time and not worrying about what's going to happen too far down the road. The Rangers re-signed wing Carl Hagelin to a two-year deal Wednesday. He will earn an average of $2.25 million a year, up from his $875,000-a-year entry-level contract. They also signed the recently acquired defenseman Justin Falk to a one-year deal worth $975,000. General Manager Glen Sather has $3.33 million under the salary cap to re-sign two restricted free agents: Derek Stepan, the first-line center, and winger Mats Zuccarello, a power-play and shootout specialist. Zuccarello filed for salary arbitration before Wednesday's 5 p.m. deadline, but can still sign a contract before the hearing, expected later this month.