The Rangers are not waiting around anymore.
After Joe Veleno went down with a lower-body injury in the middle of New York’s 4-2 win over the Utah Mammoth, the team moved quickly on Tuesday by placing him on injured reserve. That opened the door for Cole Beaudoin, one of the organization’s top young forwards, to get the call and step into the fourth-line center role.
Beaudoin will make his NHL debut Tuesday night against the Islanders at Madison Square Garden.
It’s a notable move for a Rangers team that has started the season 3-1-0 and, for the moment, looks more willing to hand real minutes to a young player than it has in the past. Rather than turning to a veteran stopgap like Justin Dowling or Juuso Parssinen, the Rangers chose Beaudoin, giving the fanbase a genuine surprise.
Beaudoin’s arrival fits a bigger pattern early this season. The Rangers have been more open than usual to letting prospects earn spots, and that was clear in training camp with Alberts Smits.
The fifth-overall pick got the first look on the left side of the third pair next to Braden Schneider and kept the job. That decision has worked so far, with Smits holding his own as a rookie defenseman.
Beaudoin’s path to this moment has moved quickly. The Rangers added him from the Utah Mammoth in the Vincent Trocheck trade, and he arrived with plenty of buzz because of his size, athletic ability, and leadership.
Mammoth general manager Bill Armstrong even said Beaudoin could one day be a captain for the Rangers. He also put up 88 points in 54 games for the OHL’s Barrie Colts last season.
The Rangers brought Beaudoin to training camp last month, where he had a real shot to make the opening night roster. The team’s late offseason signing of Eeli Tolvanen made the need for another bottom-six forward less urgent, and Beaudoin ended up missing the cut.
In preseason action against the Islanders, he scored a goal, added three hits, and won 5-of-12 faceoffs. Against the New Jersey Devils, he won five-of-nine faceoffs and finished minus-one.
Once he was sent to Hartford, Beaudoin kept making noise. In just two games with the Wolf Pack, he has five points.
He had a goal and two assists in a 5-2 win over the Lehigh Valley Phantoms on Oct. 3, then followed that with two more assists in a 3-2 win over the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins on Oct. 4.
Now, the next step comes under the bright lights of Madison Square Garden. For the Rangers, it’s a chance to see what Beaudoin can do when the opportunity arrives.
In Other News...
Alexis Lafrenire Just Became The Face Of This Rangers Surge
The Rangers latest surge kept rolling at home with a 5-2 win over the Islanders, their fourth straight victory, and it came with a little bit of everything the building could have asked for. Cole Beaudoin made his NHL debut after being recalled because Joe Veleno was sidelined by injury, while Semyon Varlamov got his first regular-season start in 676 days after going through knee surgeries. It was the kind of night that felt like another small marker for a team trying to stack wins and settle into something sturdier.
Alexis Lafrenire was at the center of it again, driving the offense in a game where the Rangers looked increasingly comfortable pressing the pace and closing it out. His latest performance only added to the sense that New York has found a reliable front-facing spark during this run, especially with the way the wins are starting to come in different forms. The bigger question now is whether this stretch is the start of something more lasting, with Lafrenire right in the middle of it. [Read more 🡒]
Rangers Face A Different Capitals Threat In Ovechkins Final Run
The Rangers have responded to an opening-night shutout loss by rattling off four straight wins, but the next stretch of the schedule brings a different kind of attention to the Metropolitan Division. Washington is still built around Alex Ovechkins presence, and the Capitals remain one of the leagues more familiar rivals for New York as this young season starts to settle in.
Ovechkins final NHL run gives every meeting with Washington a little extra weight, even as the Capitals have quietly adjusted their look up front. With new faces around the roster and a franchise icon in his last lap, the matchup carries both the usual division stakes and a hint of transition, making the Rangers next check-in with the Caps feel like more than just another early-season game. [Read more 🡒]
Mike Sullivan Is Already Changing The Feel Around These Rangers
The early tone around the Rangers has shifted quickly this season, and Mike Sullivan deserves a big share of the credit for it. New York has looked sharper and more connected in the opening stretch, with better chemistry and a more competitive edge showing up in the way the team is playing. Sullivan has already left his mark not just on the bench, but in the way the roster is being handled and in the steadier performances coming from the lineup.
For a team that spent so much time searching for the right mix, that matters. The change in feel is obvious enough that Sullivan is already drawing attention beyond the day-to-day results, with some of the early-season buzz centering on what his impact could mean over a full year. The Rangers are moving in the right direction, and the next question is how long this momentum can last once the league starts testing them more seriously. [Read more 🡒]