The Rangers projected line up for tomorrow’s opening Qualifying Round match will feature a lot of playoff newbies.  In fact nine of the roster will make their first post season NHL appearance, after all these games will statistically count towards the player’s playoff stats, even if they are deemed a “qualifying” round.

The nine include the top defensive pair of Ryan Lindgren and Adam Fox, as well as the odds-on favorite to start in net, Igor Shesterkin.  Also in the mix are fellow defender Libor Hajek – who is expected to sub in for Tony DeAngelo, who would also make his playoff debut, along with forwards Brett Howden, Kaapo Kakko, Julien Gauthier, Phillip Di Giuseppe and Filip Chytil.

Additionally, Brendan Lemieux could make his playoff debut once he completes his two game suspension, depending on how the first two games go.

At the other end of the scale are the duo of Henrik Lundqvist (128) and Marc Staal (104) who rank 1st and 3rd in franchise history.   

As to Ranger Playoff debuts, Jacob Trouba, Artemi Panarin, Greg McKegg and Ryan Strome will all be appearing for the first time in the playoffs for the franchise.  Strome hasn’t seen the playoffs since 2016 when he was the Islanders, while Panarin has now made a post season appearance in each of his 5 years in the league.

[b]NHL Playoff Appearances[/b]
128 – Lundqvist
104 – Staal
75 – Kreider
39 – Smith
38 – Fast
28 – Zibanejad
27 – Trouba
27 – Panarin
15 – McKegg
15 – Strome
5 – Buchnevich
0 – Chytil
0 – Di Giuseppe
0 – Fox
0 – Gauthier
0 – Hajek
0 – Howden
0 – Kakko
0 – Lindgren
0 – Sheshterkin

[b]Other[/b]
13 – Haley (injured reserve)
0 – Crawley
0 – DeAngelo (injured)
0 – Fogarty
0 – Georgiev
0 – Gettinger
0 – Kravtsov
0 – Lemieux (suspended)
0 – Lettieri
0 – O’Regan
0 – Raddysh