The Rangers trimmed their training camp roster to 27 today by reassigning 28 year old Swede Gustav Rydahl to Hartford. Rydahl has made a positive impression after coming to camp as a relative unknown to the coaching staff, but does not have to pass through waivers, and as such was always going to be a long shot to make the roster over Ryan Carpenter.
Carpenter also has the benefit of having played for Gerard Gallant in Las Vegas, and while he has not been particularly impactful in his preseason action, potentially losing a cheap player at the beginning of the season was probably not something Chris Drury was willing to risk.
Also likely heading down is forward Jonny Brodzinski. Brodzinski was placed on waivers todya, and if he clears, he’ll be assigned to Hartford tomorrow. With Brodzinski being sent down, the Rangers will be left with 26 players left ahead of Saturday’s final preseason game, and with 3 or 4 more cuts coming.
Almost certainly, Jarred Tinordi will be heading down to Hartford as one of the cuts, and even if Matt Bartkowski is offered a contract, he’ll probably be reassigned too. That leaves the final moves to be around Julien Gauthier, Jimmy Vesey and Dryden Hunt.
If they can figure a trade for Gauthier, then they could potentially offer Vesey a contract, and start with 23 players before deciding what to do going forward. They could also try waiving Hunt and sending him to Hartford, though there’s some risk that either he or Gauthier (if a trade doesn’t materialize) are placed on waivers, though it’s certainly possible that they’ll clear, especially if done at the last possible moments.