The Rangers head into Tuesday night’s opener with a roster that finally looks settled, and that alone gives this group a different feel than the one that trudged through last season.
New York has spent the summer reshaping things, and Chris Drury’s moves made the message pretty clear: this team expects to be better. After a year that was tough to stomach, the Rangers now believe they’ve built something deeper and more competitive. The leap they’re chasing is still a big one - going from last place to playoff contention is never simple - but the organization appears to think the ingredients are there.
Monday’s roster moves pushed things closer to final. Taylor Raddysh and Dylan Garand were placed on waivers, and the Garand decision in particular was a difficult one.
The team is now waiting to see whether he gets claimed. There’s still a chance New York could look for another center on waivers, but for now the picture is mostly clear.
The Rangers are carrying two goaltenders in Igor Shesterkin and Joonas Korpisalo. On defense, they’ll keep eight blueliners, with Scott Morrow and Matthew Robertson sticking around rather than being exposed to waivers.
Up front, Matt Rempe and Jaroslav Chmelař both made the roster, and Rempe appears to be in line to start on Opening Night on the fourth line.
There’s no guarantee that a better roster automatically turns into a better season, but the Rangers have done enough this summer to at least give themselves a real shot. The talent is deeper, the group looks sturdier, and the expectation inside the room is obvious: be a much better team and fight for a playoff spot.
That first chance to prove it comes Tuesday night on the road against the Boston Bruins.
In Other News...
Rangers Bounce-Back May Hinge On One Risky New Fit
Pavel Dorofeyevs fit is one of the more interesting pieces in the Rangers bigger bounce-back conversation, especially with the club trying to make sense of how its new pieces can complement each other. Jason Strudwick praised Sean Durzi as a puck-moving defenseman and also put Adam Fox in rare company for the way he handles the puck, a reminder that New York still has the kind of blue-line talent that can change the tone of a season.
The real question, though, is whether Dorofeyev can be put in the kind of position that helped him thrive before, and whether J.T. Miller can be the sort of table-setter that makes the fit work. Strudwick also pointed to the health of Fox and Igor Shesterkin as critical factors in how far the Rangers can go, which is the sort of reality check that hangs over any discussion of their upside even before the lineup settles in. [Read more 🡒]
Rangers Just Took A Risk With A Young Goalies Future
The Rangers are making a calculated move with a young goalie whose development they still want to protect. Dylan Garand has been sent to waivers as New York trims its roster ahead of the season, with the hope that he clears and can keep building his game in the AHL where he should get more playing time than he would have in the NHL.
There is some real risk in the decision, though, because waivers always leave a player exposed to the rest of the league. New York is willing to live with that possibility after bringing in Joonas Korpisalo to handle the backup role, a shift that makes Garand harder to keep in the organization and turns this into one of those front-office calls that could look smart later or sting quickly. [Read more 🡒]
Rangers Roster Crunch Could Put Taylor Raddysh In A Brutal Spot
The Rangers final roster picture is getting tight, and Taylor Raddysh is right in the middle of it as the club sorts through its bottom-six depth. He is in the mix for what looks like the 13th forward job, with the team weighing how to balance its forward group against the realities of a roster that was narrowed even further by offseason additions, including goalie Joonas Korpisalo.
For a team that still may want flexibility up front, the squeeze is real. New York can shuffle players to the minors or use healthy scratches to keep some extra bodies around, but the numbers do not leave much breathing room, and no final decisions have been announced yet. For Raddysh, that means the final call could come down not just to how he has looked, but to how the Rangers choose to structure the roster around him. [Read more 🡒]