Rookie camp is already underway for the New York Rangers, with several players — 25 in total —looking for a shot at the NY roster in about a month from now. These rookies will also get their first taste of NHL action tonight and tomorrow evening with back-to-back contests against the Philadelphia Flyers at the PPL Centre in Allentown, PA. However, final NHL rosters only have 23 players total, making this camp all the more important for some rookies than others. Let's look at the Rangers' first-year lines and who stands out as the best compared to the rest.
Forwards: Nathan Aspinall, Maxim Barbashev, Brett Berard, Raoul Boilard, and Isaac Dufort
All five of these youngsters have had solid numbers with their junior teams the last season, with Berard and Boilard being the biggest winners here. Berard, a 22-year-old native of East Greenwich, Rhode Island, had an impressive 25 goals and 23 assists for 48 points in 71 games for the Rangers AHL affiliate in nearby Hartford, CT. Boilard has also dominated in his league with the QMJHL's Baie-Comeau Drakkar, posting 22 goals and 40 assists for 62 points in 68 games. Both players' postseason numbers are strong, too, Boilard playing in 17 games with four goals and four assists, while Berard tallied a goal and five assists in 10 playoff games.
Moving down to Maxim Barbashev, the little brother to current Vegas Golden Knights star Ivan Barbashev and veteran RW Sergei, the 20-year-old from Moskva, Russia, had 12 goals and 14 assists for 26 points playing for the QMJHL's Rimouski Oceanic before being dealt to the Shawnigan Cataractes, where he added an additional two goals and seven assists in 15 games. Not quite as impressive as some of the other forwards here, but it's a start.
Nathan Aspinall is a hockey player, not the British Darts champion. This 18-year-old has spent two seasons with the OHL's Flint Firebirds, last season picking up 18 goals and 16 assists for 34 points in 65 games. Aspinall also notched another goal in what turned out to be a very short postseason run for the Birds as an 8 seed. The Birds were swept aside by the top-seeded London Knights, who ended up winning it all.
The last of the forwards in this year's rookie camp is Isaac Dufort, who notched 27 goals and 19 assists for a 46-point season with Baie-Comeau. Dufort is actually Boilard's teammate, so expect a friendly competition between these two in the coming weeks!
Defensemen: Carter Berger, Kale McCallum, Matthew Robertson and Ryan Siedem
Though these four may not be as sharp as the above five, there are still a couple of bright spots on this new defensive line for the Rangers. McCallum is absolutely the standout, posting 11 goals and 31 assists for 42 points in 30 games for the University of New Brunswick of U Sports, Canada's collegiate athletics association. Roberston and Siedem have also posted decent numbers for their positions (4 G, 17 A for 21 PTS in 68 games with AHL affiliate Hartford; 3 G, 17 A for 20 PTS in 36 games for Notre Dame), and so has Berger (4 goals, 16 assists for 20 points in 36 games for Western Michigan) This could be a more important battle to watch than even the forwards faceoff.
Goaltenders: Tayln Boyko, Dylan Garand, and Hugo Ollas
All 3 of these young netminders posted good seasons during the 2023/24 campaign. First, Boyko, a 21-year-old Drumheller, Alberta native who stands at an intimidating 6'7", had a 13-9-1 record in 26 games with the ECHL's Cincinnati Cyclones. As a lifelong Kentucky native, that's pretty sweet. Dylan Garand guarded the net for Hartford in 39 games last season, posting a 16-17-5 record and a 3.03 GAA, a bit lower than Boyko's 3.42 with Cincy. Finally, Hugo Ollas, who, like Boyko, stands a towering 6'7", got a game with Hartford amid his sophomore season at Merrimack where he played in 21 games, albeit posting a 7-12-0 record.
Other Rangers hopefuls on the forward lines include the likes of Jaroslav Chmelar (26 games, 5 A, 10 AST for 15 PTS with Providence), Rico Gredig (2 goals and two assists in 28 games with Sweden's HC Davos and seven goals, eight assists for 15 points with their U20 team), Bryce McConnell-Barker from the OHL's Sault St. Marie Greyhounds, Dylan Roobroeck from Oshawa (OHL), Kalle Vaisanen (TPS from Finland's sm-Liiga), and additional Hartford hopefuls Adam Edstrom (11 G, 5 AST for 16 PTS in 40 games and 11 games plus two goals with NYR) and Ryder Korczak (9 A, 11 A for 20 pts in 67 games). On the defensive lines, it's Victor Mancini (Univ. of Nebraska Omaha), Case McCarthy from Boston U., Jake Murray from the AHL's Texas Stars and then the ECHL's Idaho Steelheads, and Noah Van Vliet from Brantford, then Sudbury of the OHL.
Roobroeck is especially worth noting, as he led all Ranger prospects in overall scoring for the regular season. In the OHL playoffs Roobroeck finished sixth in overall playoff scoring and third in goal scoring.
The Rangers and Flyers will play two rookie games this weekend, Friday at 7 p.m. and Saturday at 5 p.m., at PPL Center in Allentown, Pennsylvania, home of the Lehigh Valley Phantoms of the American Hockey League.