Rangers release Matt Bartkowski from his professional tryout

It was announced that the New York Rangers have released a long-time veteran defenseman from his professional tryout as the Rangers were cutting their roster down to the 23 that will start the season with the big club. Matt Bartkowski was in New York hoping to get a job at either the AHL or NHL level but was released as the Rangers were removing people from the roster ahead of the cap compliance deadline.

Bartkowski is a 34-year-old defenseman that was originally drafted by the Florida Panthers in the 2008 NHL entry draft in the 7th round, 190th overall. After parts of 10 years in the National Hockey League, Bartkowski has been playing in the AHL recently and was hoping to get back into the big time on a contending team in New York.

As for now, the Rangers will be seeking a new defenseman to come in and help them with their depth after they parted ways with Matt Bartkowski. This doesn’t mean that Bartkowski is going to be signing with another organization, but it does mean that at this time, Bartkowski is not going to be a member of the New York Rangers. Depending on the Rangers’ need for a defenseman, they may come back to this.

As for New York, this leaves no clear call-up if the blueline suffers a couple of injuries as we get into the season. While we hope that no one gets hurting for the Rangers, it is inevitable that in a contact sport like this, people will get hurt and how the Rangers will respond to any injuries on the backend

Bartkowski will go back into the unrestricted free agency pool and will seek a new chance at a job in the big leagues. Whether he will find it or not, only time will tell. To make it to the very end of the Rangers camp, Bartkowski was impressive enough to management to find it worthwhile. This could have been the player’s last chance at making an NHL roster. He’s not a spring chicken anymore.