The Rangers open training camp for the 2018-19 season today at the MSG Training Center. All players attending will undergo physicals while Friday is on-ice testing. New York has 52 players in camp split into three teams, all three of which will be reached n the ice Saturday and Sunday.
OFFICIAL: #NYR Roster for 2018 Training Camp #NYRTC. pic.twitter.com/h8e7R0Jvtw
— New York Rangers (@NYRangers) September 12, 2018
Bobby Butler and Jeremy Brodeur are the only players on PTO in camp. I was a bit surprised that Jakob Stukel, who played well at Traverse City, wasn’t invited. Hopefully he gets a minor league contract to play at Hartford.
Of the 52, you could probably make a compelling case that 30-35 have a shot to break camp. Even if you believe that number to be high, would anyone be shocked if that number of players had at least a cup of coffee with the team this season? As I noted in my McQuaid blog yesterday, competition on defense will be extremely high. Similar should exist up front, where Ville Meskanen and Michael Lindqvist both likely opened some eyes at Traverse City, giving them a bit of a leg up heading into camp. In net. Georgiev, Mazanec and Tokarski will all battle for the backup spot behind Henrik Lundqvist. The last 4-5 cuts overall will be very difficult and you have to wonder if the need to pass through waivers etc. play a larger than expected role in who earns a spot.
2018 Rangers Training Camp Teams
TEAM A
8 Cody McLeod 18 Marc Staal 29 Cole Schneider 30 Henrik Lundqvist 31 Dustin Tokarski 33 Fredrik Claesson 34 Michael Lindqvist 37 Gabriel Fontaine 44 Neal Pionk 50 Lias Andersson 55 Ryan Lindgren 82 Joey Keane 85 Sean Day 89 Pavel Buchnevich 90 Vladislav Namestnikov 93 Mika Zibanejad 95 Vinni Lettieri
TEAM B
13 Kevin Hayes 23 Ryan Spooner 24 Boo Nieves 26 Jimmy Vesey 32 Marek Mazanec 38 Steven Fogarty 42 Brendan Smith 54 Adam McQuaid 58 John Gilmour 59 Ty Ronning 74 Vince Pedrie 76 Brady Skjei 77 Tony DeAngelo 80 Chris Nell 81 Ville Meskanen 92 Dawson Leedahl 97 Tim Gettinger
TEAM C
12 Peter Holland 17 Jesper Fast 20 Chris Kreider 22 Kevin Shattenkirk 25 Bobby Butler 28 Chris Bigras 36 Mats Zuccarello 39 Matt Beleskey 40 Alexandar Georgiev 41 Nico Gross 43 Libor Hajek 46 Rob O’Gara 48 Brett Howden 56 Jeremy Brodeur 72 Filip Chytil 73 Brandon Crawley 78 Ryan Gropp
Pre-season games begin Monday. I am looking figuratively to seeing the line combinations deployed by new coach David Quinn and how he juggles the myriad of centers in camp. Where do Nam and Andersson and Chytil and Spooner line up? What about Spooner and Hayes? The same for Howden, who should get a long look see in camp. Does Beleskey earn a spot or does the presence of McQuaid make what Beleskey and to a lesser extent, McLead, bring to the table redundant? So many interesting questions and story lines as the Blueshirts open camp.