Day: September 27, 2010

Twenty Seven players. A maximum of twenty four spots – if Chris Drury starts the season on Injured Reserve. Probably more likely to be twenty three spots, whether or not Drury is healthy to start the season.

Remaining on the roster, the Rangers still have sixteen forwards, nine defensemen and two goaltenders. At least deciding the goaltending duo is going to be easy. As for the rest, I’m going to take a stab at breaking this down further.

The Rangers trimmed their roster by a further eleven players today, bringing the number remaining in camp to just 27, including injured forwards Chris Drury and Vinny Prospal. The cuts marked the end of contract bids for defensemen Alexei Semenov, Garnet Exelby and try-out Brandon Manning.

At forward, the biggest surprise was perhaps Mats Zuccarello Aasen going to down Hartford without a further look. The 5-6 forward had shown some offensive creativity in his two preseason games, but there’s still some thought that he needs to further adjust to North America.

Just three pre-season games remaining, and only a handful of cuts before the October 6th roster deadline. You can almost smell the hockey in the air.

Today’s Rangers Countdown player probably is as anxious to get in front of the MSG faithful as we are to see the team back on the ice.