The Rangers play their fifth of six pre-season games tomorrow night against Philadelphia. After winning the first two games by a goal, New York dropped the next two, each by a 2-1 score. Following Monday's game, the Rangers complete the home and home against Philly on Tuesday before taking over a week off with the season opener October 5 against Colorado.

Friday, the team assigned Sean Day, Dawson Leedahl, and Sergey Zborovskiy to the Hartford Wolf Pack of the American Hockey League (AHL). None of these cuts were suppressed. Day will get a chance to work with Brian Leetch, aiding his growth and ability to use his speed and offensive skills on the defensive aspect of the game. Zborovskiy had a breakthrough campaign last year and a strong season for the Wolf Pack could move him up in the pecking order.

Saturday, the Rangers assigned the following eight players to the Hartford Wolf Pack of the American Hockey League (AHL):

· Forwards: Ryan Gropp, Malte Stromwall, Adam Tambellini

· Defensemen: Alexei Bereglazov, John Gilmour, Vince Pedrie

· Goaltenders: Alexandar Georgiev, Chris Nell

Stromwall had a moment or two on camp while Gropp has lost some of his prospect status and Tambellini could play wing as he did at times in camp. Bereglazov needs the work on the smaller ice surface, as he continues to adapt to the Notth American game. Gilmour is another in a long line of young blueliners in the system, as is Pedrie, with each looking to top the other at Hartford and move up the ladder. Georgiev will battle Brandon Halverson to start at Hartford while Nell could begin the season in the ECHL.

Following those cuts, the Rangers had 38 players remaining in Training Camp. The roster breakdown is listed below:

Forwards (24): Lias Andersson, Pavel Buchnevich, Paul Carey, Daniel Catenacci, Filip Chytil, David Desharnais, Andrew Desjardins, Bobby Farnham, Jesper Fast, Steven Fogarty, Gabriel Fontaine, Michael Grabner, Kevin Hayes, Scott Kosmachuk, Chris Kreider, Vinni Lettieri, J.T. Miller, Rick Nash, Boo Nieves, Matt Puempel, Cole Schneider, Jimmy Vesey, Mika Zibanejad, Mats Zuccarello

Defensemen (11): Brandon Crawley, Tony DeAngelo, Ryan Graves, Nick Holden, Steven Kampfer, Ryan McDonagh, Neal Pionk, Kevin Shattenkirk, Brady Skjei, Brendan Smith, Marc Staal

Goaltenders (3): Brandon Halverson, Henrik Lundqvist, Ondrej Pavelec

Sunday, per Renaud Lavoie, the Rangers asked for waivers on Catanacci and Schneider, so that each can be sent to the minors. That will leave the team with 36 players. Several more are on the bubble, with decisions on a few possibly coming followings Monday's game.

Projected #NYR fwds tomorrow vs PHI:

Puempel
Kreider
Nieves
Carey
Zuccarello
Andersson
Fontaine
Nash
Chytil
Buchnevich
Zibanejad
Lettieri

Projected #NYR Goalies & D-men tomorrow vs PHI:

GOALTENDERS
Lundqvist
Halverson

DEFENSE:
Staal
Shattenkirk
McDonagh
Smith
Kampfer
DeAngelo

Nieves, Andersson and Chytil are all in a battle to break camp with the team. Lettieri is a long shot to earn a spot, but he has continued to impress in camp. The same can be said about Fontaine, who has been much better than expected. With Andersson and Chytil, each can remain for nine games before getting sent down, and their chances initially are aided with Jesper Fast out for probably the first three weeks of the season.

On defense, Staal needs to impress to keep his spot while Kampfer likely opens the season in the minors. D'Angelo could be the seventh d-man and McD/'Kirk need to play together to start building that chemistry. Halverson gets another chance to impress while Lundqvist builds towards the season.

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