Rangers roll out top stars and key offseason additions for MSG preseason debut

The New York Rangers play hockey at Madison Square Garden tonight, and the roster of players taking the ice are better known than the group that fell 3-2 on Monday against New Jersey in Newark. The team announced a squad that features the team's top-six forwards, the full defense group, and Igor Shesterkin in goal. Some players who dressed on Monday are back in action tonight, and here's what is at stake for all those involved.

Rangers annouce roster group for Tuesday's preseason game against Islanders

Tonight's game will see top prospects Alberts Smits, Cole Beaudoin, and Liam Greentree make their Madison Square Garden debut, and it will mark Smits and Beaudoin's entry to the preseason. Greentree skated for the Rangers on Monday, and he's someone trying to make a good impression for team brass.

Pavel Dorofeyev, Oliver Bjorkstrand, Eeli Tolvanen, Sean Durzi, and Marcus Pettersson joined the Rangers during the offseason, and they are all high profile players who are putting on the Rangers' uniform for the first time. This game isn't the same as regular season action, but up until this point fans will have only seen them in renderings or Photoshops, and there's just something special about new players putting on the team sweater for the very first time.

What the line combinations say about ongoing roster battles

It is no surprise that Mike Sullivan is keeping the Rangers' top line from the end of last season together, and he's prioritizing chemistry instead of just thrusting Dorofeyev, the team's new $11 milllion man, to the top line for no reason. He instead will be paired with J.T. Miller and fellow newcomer Oliver Bjorkstrand.

Tolvanen is the only guaranteed roster player in the bottom six, and he's drawn the assignment to skate with Greentree and Beaudoin as a veteran elder statesmen of sorts. The fourth line has Taylor Raddysh and Jaroslav Chmelař, and both are players who are likely in direct competition with each other for one of the final roster spots.

Roobroeck is another player suiting up for the second game in a row, and he's likely Hartford bound but is someone who projects to possibly get some playing time on the main roster in the event that someone like Joe Veleno doesn't meet the expectations of the front office. He's another big boy that can skate well and cause havoc, and it is nice to see him getting a spin with a squad that is full of a lot of NHL talent.

Defense is pretty straight forward, and by all indications the six names listed will start the season together. Fox and Gavrikov are both incumbents on the top pair, Pettersson reunites with Mike Sullivan after a stint in Vancouver, and Durzi joined the Rangers (along with Beaudoin) in the trade that sent Vincent Trocheck to Utah.

Smits has been used in such a way in which it feels like the Rangers want to see how he does to start, and essentially make it his job to lose. Matthew Robertson, last year's No. 6 defender, skated on Monday and remains in competition for a roster spot.

Lastly, certainly not least, is Igor. Garand played the full game on Monday, but I'd imagine Shesterkin will split time with Spencer Martin. He's limited to just two preseason games as an established veteran, and I'd bet he plays the entirety of the Rangers' final preseason game later on this week.

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