New York Rangers’ Roster is Nearing it’s Completion

With one round of cuts and one preseason game remaining before the regular season gets underway a week from today, things are getting real at New York Rangers camp.

It’s getting real guys! This time next week, the New York Rangers will play a game for points against the Islanders at the Garden and I am pumped!

Before we get there, though, the team has their final preseason game tonight against the Philadelphia Flyers and there are still 6-7 cuts to be made from the roster.

• The team announced their second to last set of cuts yesterday afternoon. They dropped their roster size from 39 to 29. They sent forwards Marek Hrivik, Nick Jensen, Robin Kovacs and Malte Stromwall, defenseman Matt Bodie, John Gilmour, Ryan Graves and Chris Summers and goalie Mackenzie Skapski down to Hartford.
• The team also cut veteran Maxim Lapierrere loose of his camp tryout. I don’t think Lapierre was horrible, but he definitely looked slow out there on the ice. In a forward group that is predicated on speed, it wouldn’t have made much sense to keep him.

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• Another thing about these cuts to note was the Nicklas Jensen and Marek Hrivik have to clear waivers to be sent down to Hartford. I honestly wouldn’t be surprised if either of them gets claimed by another team. Jensen had a great World Juniors tournament this offseason, and I think a lot of teams see potential in him.
• Also, and this has been said before a lot on the Rangers internet and I want to reiterate it; I think Marek Hrivik could be a good fourth liner somewhere in the league. The Rangers’ forward group is just too deep, otherwise, I’d be all for him playing in that spot.
• One more quick note on these cuts; I don’t know why I am surprised that John Gilmour got cut so early, but I am. He displayed some good offensive instincts in his time in the lineup this preseason, tallying two goals. I didn’t think he was gonna make the team, but I expected the team to give him one more game.

Who’s Still There?

Well, there is your answer.

• I think this is pretty much the roster we expected to see at this point, with the exception of a few names. The team needs to cut 6-7 more people, so might those players be?
  • The three easy ones are Gabriel Fontaine, Boo Nieves and Magnus Hellberg. After that, it gets really tricky.
  • In my heart, I believe Tanner Glass will get cut, but my head tells me differently. Or is it the other way around? Regardless, I want Glass cut, and I still think he will, but if he does end up making the team, you will hear me saying, in the words of Paul Abrahmain from Big Brother 18, “Your boy, is pissed!”
  • So assuming Glass does get cut, that leaves us with 25 players on the roster according to my very crappy math skills. That would leave 15 forwards, 8 defensemen, and the two goalies. This means two more forwards and possibly 1 defenseman needs to be cut.
  • • Looking at the forward group, technically, since they will put center Oscar Lindberg on the IR, they only really need to cut one more forward. It also looks like that final spot will be a battle between Nathan Gerbe and Josh Jooris. I am going to go out on a limb and say Jooris is the one who gets cut due to him being relatively unknown and the fact he hurt himself and camp and was never able to fully recover to show the best of his game. It sucks, but that’s just the way it goes sometimes.
    • I am also going to make another bold prediction. I think that Brady Skjei is either named the 6th defenseman or is optioned down to Hartford. He hasn’t played all too well so far this preseason and Alain Vigneault has acknowledged how wanted to see more from the rookie. There is really no point in leaving him in the press box as the 7th or 8th defenseman when he could be getting time develop in Hartford.

Next: Jimmy Vesey was Flyers' forward Radko Rudas' latest victim

The team has yet to announce their lineup for tonight’s game against the Flyers, but I would imagine that all these players I just talked about will be in the lineup, possibly for the last time.