Day: October 11, 2021

The Rangers complied with the 5pm Eastern deadline to finalize their opening night roster, by sending down waiver exempt forwards Vitali Kravtsov and Morgan Barron, along with veteran the recently recalled Greg McKegg.  The moves put the Rangers exactly at the league maximum 23, with two goaltenders, eight defensemen and thirteen forwards.

By reassigning Kravtsov and Barron, the Rangers avoided exposing Libor Hajek, Dryden Hunt and Julien Gauthier to waivers and provides the team a little longer to determine what to do, if anything, with the remaining players.

Last time the Rangers had a captain, they had just announced they were starting a rebuild.  Since that time, the team has seen fit to go with alternates only, a scenario that will now stretch extend the period without a captain to three years, eight months and eleven days by Wednesday’s home opener.

Instead, the team will once again go with six alternates: 

Even with a shortened off-season, it still feels an age away since the Rangers last played a meaningful game.  This is no longer Jeff Gorton’s team, and the expectation is that Gerard Gallant will lead this team back to the playoffs after a four year absence – excluding the play-oin 0-3 drubbing by Carolina in 2019-20.

Looking ahead to the first month of the season, the Rangers look like they may have ended up with some favorable draws, which may allow the team to get off to a quickish start if they’re able to execute.