Last Rangers’ preseason game with decisions to be made

This is it for the New York Rangers.  The last preseason game before the roster is finalized. It’s going to be an opportunity for some players to win jobs, especially after a mediocre showing on Wednesday night against the Bruins.

Coach Gerard Gallant was blunt in his assessment after the game, saying that most of the team had a bad night, except for the Kid Line.  Time is running out for Rangers management to decide which players will make the team.  While the NHL limits roster size to 23 players, it’s likely that the Rangers will carry 22 because of cap constraints.

It’s clear that the priority for Gallant is to get his top lines clicking and it looks like that Kaapo Kakko will be moved up to the right side of Mika Zibanejad and Jimmy Vesey will get a look on the right of  Vincent Trocheck and Artemi Panarin.

Replacing Kakko on the third line is Barclay Goodrow.

That leaves the final three slots on the fourth line for Sammy Blais, Ryan Carpenter, Ryan Reaves, Dryden Hunt, Vitali Kravtsov, and Julien Gauthier.

Of the sextet, who gets to play will tell us a lot. If Reaves sits, it means he has locked up a roster spot.  While Gallant was clearly not happy with Kravtsov on Wednesday, he may not play since his waiver status almost guarantees a spot on the NHL roster.   Sammy Blais is almost a lock as well so it could be Carpenter, Hunt, and Gauthier on the fourth line, all contending for one open roster slot.

With Gustav Rydahl sent to Hartford on Friday, the smart money is on Carpenter to get the spot since he is a center.  Gallant complimented him after practice, citing his defensive play and penalty killing.

The big question is whether the Rangers choose to sign Jimmy Vesey after his Professional Tryout. He has played the most games of all forwards and has been all over the lineup.  If Vesey is not signed (and that would be a surprise), it could mean a job for Gauthier or Hunt.

As Gallant has been saying all along, these are very, very tough decisions.

On defense, Ryan Lindgren is still nursing a minor injury so he will be out of the lineup.  That means K’Andre Miller gets to play with Adam Fox while Libor Hajek will be on the left side of Jacob Trouba. The Zac Jones-Braden Schneider duo will remain intact.

Hajek has been consistently saddled with mediocre defense partners this preseason and this will be the first time he gets to play with a top-four blueliner in Trouba.  For the Czech blueliner, this could be his last opportunity to impress if Gallant liked Bartkowski’s work against the Bruins.

The cap situation

Here’s why the decisions are tough. Cap space is at a premium.

The Rangers have $80,053,969 in cap space taken up by 20 players and buyouts. That means they have $2,446,031 in cap space for two or three more players. That does not include Vesey (unsigned), Carpenter ($750k), Gauthier ($800k), or Hunt ($762.5k).  Since they all are near the NHL minimum ($750k), the Rangers could afford to keep three of them on the roster and still be under the cap (by about  $100k).   They keep two of them and they will have a little less than $1 million in cap space.

This is important.  Unused cap space accrues over time.  The longer the team is under the cap, the more cap space they have later in the season, especially at the trade deadline. It’s in the team’s best interests to have unused cap space so that they can bolster the roster at the deadline.

Projected starting lineups

This is the final preseason tune-up for both teams and we will be seeing a lot of regulars with the Islanders fielding practically their entire starting lineup.  Scott Mayfield and Cal Clutterbuck are the only starters not in the lineup, both out with injuries.

The Rangers trounced the Isles 4-1 in the preseason opener, but this game should be very different.

Igor Shesterkin should play the entire game after missing the Boston game with a stomach ailment.  This should be an interesting match-up between Shesterkin and his rival, fellow Russian Ilya Sorokin.  They are two of the top netminders in the NHL and Shesterkin has yet to beat Sorokin in an NHL regular season game, going 0-1-1.

New York Rangers

20 Chris Kreider – 93 Mika ZIbanejad – 24 Kaapo Kakko
10 Artemi Panarin – 16 Vincent Trocheck – 26 Jimmy Vesey
13 Alexis Lafreniere – 72 Filip Chytil – 21 Barclay Goodrow
29 Dryden Hunt – 22 Ryan Carpenter – 12 Julien Gauthier

79 K’Andre Miller – 23 Adam Fox
25 Libor Hajek – 8 Jacob Trouba
6 Zac Jones – 45 Braden Schneider

31 Igor Shesterkin
41 Jaroslav Halak

New York Islanders

27 Anders Lee- 29 Brock Nelson – 18 Anthony Beauvillier
11 Zach Parise- 13 Matt Barzal – 21 Kyle Palmieri
12 Josh Bailey – 44 Jean-Gabriel Pageau- 20 Keiffer Bellows
17 Matt Martin – 53 Casey Cizikas – 32 Ross Johnston

3 Adam Pelech – 6 Ryan Pulock
28 Alexander Romanov – 8 Noah Dobson
2 Robin Salo – 25 Sebastian Aho

30 Ilya Sorokin
40 Semyon Varlamov

How to watch & the live conversation

The game is scheduled to start at 7 pm and it will be televised locally on the MSG Network.  The game will be streamed live on ESPN+.   The game is on both MSG and MSG Sportnet, but we don’t know if it will be Sam and Joe or the Islanders broadcasters doing the game. Hopefully, it will be the Rangers’ team so we won’t be bombarded by a steady stream of Islanders nonsense.

Blue Line Station’s live thread is active now and you can comment and converse with your fellow Ranger fans throughout the game in the comments section below. There are some bugs in the chat and to see new comments you may have to refresh your screen or change the order from newest to oldest to newest again. Sorry about that.