The New York Rangers open the 2026-27 season Tuesday night in Boston with a roster that looks a lot different than the one that stumbled to the finish last spring. Eight new players are on the opening-night group, and the biggest jolt comes from 18-year-old Alberts Smits, who earned a spot on the third defense pair and is set to make his NHL debut against the Bruins at TD Garden.
Smits, the No. 5 overall pick in this year’s NHL Draft, impressed enough in the preseason to crack the lineup right away. Asked Monday if he expected to make the team, he said, “Yeah, obviously that’s why I came here,”
His rise is part of a larger overhaul on the back end, where New York is rolling out three new defensemen in the starting lineup. That includes a new veteran second pair with Marcus Pettersson and Sean Durzi, a clear sign the Rangers spent the offseason trying to deepen the roster and reshape the blue line.
There’s also no shortage of motivation after last season’s 34-39-9 finish left the Rangers last in the Eastern Conference with 77 points and out of the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the second year in a row. The organization has moved on from that, and coach Mike Sullivan and his team are treating Tuesday as a clean slate.
Captain J.T. Miller said the group has already started to come together during a short camp and limited preseason schedule.
“I thought we had a great camp, the team’s jelling really well,” Miller shared. “I feel like we had a short time to get to know a lot of new faces, and thought we did a really good job of doing that.
Everybody seems to fit in great. I thought there was a really good pace and energy and bite to our group in the preseason.
“So, it’s going to be fun. It’s a great building to open up in … against a good hockey team. So, it’s going to be a good test for us.”
The matchup also gives the Rangers a chance to respond after their last trip to TD Garden, a brutal 10-2 loss on Jan. 10.
Igor Shesterkin and Adam Fox were out injured for that game, but both are available this time. Boston, meanwhile, will be missing Charlie McAvoy, who is serving a six-game suspension after an incident in the Stanley Cup Playoffs last spring.
Tuesday will also mark a major milestone for Sullivan, who is coaching his 1,000th NHL game. He becomes the 33rd coach in league history to reach that number.
Projected Rangers lineup: Gabe Perreault - Mika Zibanejad - Alexis Lafreniere
Oliver Bjorkstrand - J.T. Miller - Pavel Dorofeyev
Will Cuylle - Noah Laba - Eeli Tolvanen
Tye Kartye - Joe Veleno - Matt Rempe
Valdislav Gavrikov - Adam Fox
Marcus Pettersson - Sean Durzi
Alberts Smits - Braden Schneider
Igor Shesterkin
Joonas Korpisalo
The Rangers and Bruins face off Tuesday, September 29 at 8 p.m. ET at TD Garden. The game will be televised on ESPN.
In Other News...
New Look Rangers Face One Brutal Reality In The Playoff Race
Chris Drury spent the offseason trying to give the Rangers a noticeably different look, and the overhaul is hard to miss. New arrivals such as Oliver Bjorkstrand, Eeli Tolvanen, Sean Durzi, Marcus Pettersson, Alberts Smits and Joonas Korpisalo are meant to raise the floor after a frustrating finish near the bottom of the Eastern Conference, giving New York more balance and more options as it tries to climb back into relevance.
The problem is that improvement in the standings is only half the battle in the Metropolitan Division, where the race for playoff spots is likely to be unforgiving again. The Rangers should be better than they were a year ago, but the gap between looking improved and actually getting back into the postseason is still a real one, and it is the sort of margin that can turn even a busy summer into only the first step of a much harder climb. [Read more 🡒]
Rangers Just Got An Early Blue-Line Boost From An Unexpected Rookie
Alberts mits arrived in camp with plenty of attention after the Rangers took him fifth overall in the 2026 NHL Draft, but he has quickly turned that into a real role on the opening-night roster for the 2026-27 season. The young defenseman made a strong enough impression in training camp and preseason play to earn a place on the third pairing, giving New York an early look at one of its most intriguing blue-line additions.
What makes the move notable is how fast the plan changed for a player many figured would need more seasoning elsewhere before settling into NHL duty. Instead, mits stayed with the main group through camp, and Mike Sullivan made it clear the rookie had done enough to belong. For a Rangers defense looking for reliability and upside, that kind of early breakthrough is the sort of development that can quietly shape the first stretch of the season. [Read more 🡒]
Rangers Missed Out On A Major Defenseman For One Reason
The NHL rumor mill keeps spinning around a Maple Leafs-Blue Jackets blockbuster that sent Kirill Marchenko, Miles Wood and Elvis Merzlikins to Toronto in exchange for Matthew Knies, Steven Lorentz, Emil Andrae and a second-round pick, with Marchenko quickly putting his stamp on the move by landing a six-year extension. But for Rangers fans, the more relevant ripple is the way another major defense-market swing came into focus, because Toronto was not the only team trying to pry a big name loose and New York had its own shot at a difference-making blue liner.
A proposed Nikishin deal to the Rangers never got across the finish line, and the reason is where the story turns from simple trade chatter into the kind of front-office standoff that can reshape a market. The contract side of the discussion stalled out, leaving the Rangers to watch a player they had clearly pursued stay elsewhere while the rest of the league continues to juggle bigger scenarios, including Carolinas interest in Connor Hellebuyck and the possibility of a multi-team twist somewhere down the line. [Read more 🡒]