Matt Rempe looks set to stick with the Rangers, and so does 18-year-old defenseman Alberts Smits.
That became the clearest takeaway from Friday’s preseason finale at UBS Arena against the Islanders, where coach Mike Sullivan dressed both players and left several others out of the lineup. Rempe contributed an assist and was credited with eight hits, then laughed off the number afterward.
“I thought there was more than eight,” he joked.
Rempe said earlier in the day that the uncertainty of roster cuts had been weighing on him.
“You’re always worried about things like that,’’ Rempe, 24, said. “It's a stressful job.
You’ve got to perform and put the work in. I really put the work in . . .
Yeah, of course I'm always stressed out, worried. But you’ve just got to take it a day at a time and work your bag off.’’
Smits, the Rangers’ first-round pick this summer and the No. 5 pick overall, also appears to have earned a spot. He had been using an auxiliary locker room throughout training camp, but on Friday he was moved into the main locker room at the team’s practice facility.
Sullivan still wasn’t ready to formally confirm the roster that will head to Boston for Tuesday’s regular-season opener, but he praised Smits’ game and poise.
“He’s got a quiet confidence about him. His poise with the puck, you know, he's not looking to just get rid of it . . .
He'll settle it down. He'll go D-to-D.
He'll skate it, if there's [open] ice . . . It's not on and off his stick; he's not looking to just move the puck to somebody else.’’
The players left out of Friday’s lineup were Jaroslav Chmelar, Taylor Raddysh, Matthew Robertson and Scott Morrow.
Chmelar, 23, had been battling Rempe for the fourth-line right wing job. He made an impression during a late-season call-up last year and seemed to get an early edge in camp, but he hasn’t separated himself in the preseason. Because he is waivers-exempt, the Rangers can send him to the minors without exposing him to waivers first, which makes a demotion likely.
Raddysh has served as a flexible extra forward during camp and scored in Tuesday’s preseason game against the Islanders at the Garden. Robertson and Morrow have been working as the fourth defensive pair in camp. If Raddysh remains the 13th forward and the Rangers carry seven defensemen, they’ll need to choose between Robertson and Morrow and risk losing the other on waivers.
There is also a decision to be made in goal if the Rangers do not keep three goaltenders. That would leave them with Dylan Garand or Joonas Korpisalo.
Garand, a fourth-round pick in 2020, has spent the last four seasons in Hartford, while Korpisalo arrived in an offseason trade with Boston. Each played one full preseason game against the Devils and gave up three goals.
Garand took a 3-2 loss to the Devils’ NHL team, while Korpisalo beat the Devils’ minor-league lineup 4-3 in a shootout. Garand being in the Hartford group during camp, rather than with Igor Shesterkin and Korpisalo in the NHL group, points to Korpisalo having the edge.
The Rangers also announced assignments to Hartford for forwards Nathan Aspinall, Cole Beaudoin, Liam Greentree and Carey Terrance, along with defensemen Jackson Dorrington and Drew Fortescue.
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