The Rangers’ camp has already started sorting out one of its most interesting battles, and Scott Morrow is right in the middle of it.
New York doesn’t have much runway this preseason. With only four exhibition games and a condensed training camp, every shift matters, and Morrow has taken full advantage of the chances he’s gotten. The young defenseman is pushing hard for an opening-night job, and he’s doing it with the kind of confidence that shows he believes he belongs.
“You gotta have confidence in yourself, and I know that if I play my best hockey, it’s gonna find a way to work out,” Morrow told The Athletic on Monday, via Peter Baugh and Vincent Z. Mercogliano (subscription required).
“I have a ton of confidence in what I can bring to the team, who I am as a player. I think guys with my size and skill set are hard to find, and especially after I prove to the coaches, the organization, management, whoever, that I can defend and that I can skate - those are always the things my whole life that have been the question marks for people.
Once I kind of take those away, I think I’ll be a pretty well-rounded player, and definitely able to play at this level.”
That self-belief comes with real upside. Morrow is a right-shot defenseman with puck-moving ability and age on his side, and that combination is exactly why the Rangers have reason to think twice about exposing him to waivers. If they try to send him to the Hartford Wolf Pack, another team could take a shot.
He’s also backed up the confidence with his play in the preseason.
Morrow has already stood out in both games against the New Jersey Devils. On Sept. 21, he logged 22:44, recorded two shots on goal and added one blocked shot. In the second meeting on Sept. 24, he fired three shots on goal, scored his first goal of the year against Nico Daws and finished at plus-1.
The overtime game gave Sullivan another reason to keep watching closely. Morrow played 25:44, which was the most ice time of anyone on the team by a wide margin. The next closest was Albers Smits at 23:48.
That usage suggests Morrow is squarely in the mix for one of the final defense spots, alongside Matthew Robertson. And because he is no longer waiver-exempt, the Rangers would be taking a serious risk if they tried to sneak him down to the AHL.
The complication doesn’t stop there. New York may carry three goalies, and that creates another squeeze on the roster. Dylan Garand is in a similar spot, since he also isn’t waiver-exempt and could be vulnerable to being claimed by another team.
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Still, the real question is whether the rest of the roster can do enough to turn that stability into wins. New Yorks season could swing quickly depending on health and the growth of its younger forwards, with the gap between a playoff berth and a frustrating year likely resting on whether the offense finds enough consistency to support the pieces already in place. [Read more 🡒]