New York Rangers: What roster spots are up for grabs in camp?

The possible

Notice the absence of both Lias Andersson and Filip Chytil above as locks for the roster. There are two conflicting schools of thought as to what would be best for both player’s development that are playing out.

There is the idea of letting both forwards play another year in the AHL in a top line role and average 20 minutes per night of ice time would give them the most seasoning.

But, there is also the conflicting point that the team has nothing to play for this season and giving both a season long audition in the NHL to see where they are in the respective development processes would serve the team’s future best.

However, in the case that one or both of them makes the team they’d be pushing for a similar role. Of the two, Chytil is the one with the higher upside at this point according to scouting, so it’d make sense that the team would want to put him in the top six. The coaching staff would have to decide whether or not to keep him down the middle or to shift the Czech center to the wing. If he were to go to the wing it’d make sense to put him on Kevin Hayes’ wing as possession protection.

So, both Chytil and Andersson are pushing for a role as a top six forward. If the coaching staff decides on keeping them in the AHL, it’d be Spooner and Namestnikov battling it out for this job. Either would be a reasonable stop gap on the second line during a rebuilding year. This role is the most important one that is up for grabs and there are different avenues in which to approach it. The best case scenario is one of Chytil or Andersson being ready and taking the spot out of camp.