Colin Stephenson: Rangers pivot to youth as their lost season winds down
Adam Sykora of the Rangers skates against the Bruins during a preseason game at Madison Square Garden on Sep. 23, 2025. Credit: Getty Images/Bruce Bennett
Adam Sykora is still only 21, but the Slovak forward has waited a long time, it seems, before finally getting the chance Wednesday to make his NHL debut for the Rangers. On Sunday, goalie Dylan Garand, 23, made his NHL debut, and next up will be defenseman Drew Fortescue, 20, who has been with the team since last weekend when he signed his entry-level contract following the conclusion of his junior season at Boston College.
So, the kids are getting looked at now, which is of course to be expected, with the playoffs out of reach and 10 games remaining after Wednesday’s matchup against the Maple Leafs in Toronto. With the Rangers set to be officially eliminated from playoff contention with a loss Wednesday, now is clearly the time to see what some of their young prospects can do.
So five rookies – Sykora, Jaroslav Chmelar, Gabe Perreault, defenseman Matthew Robertson and Garand, who served as the backup to Igor Shesterkin – dressed for Wednesday’s game. Another, Noah Laba, who has been around all season and long ago established himself as a key regular, missed his fourth straight game due to a lower-body injury.
Sykora, the team’s second-round pick in 2022 (they didn’t have a first-round pick that year) gets his opportunity after spending the last three seasons playing at AHL Hartford. He made his debut for Hartford in 2023 at 18, and he’s played 201 AHL games, including all 62 this season, when he scored 12 goals, with 29 points and an even plus/minus rating. He was the Wolf Pack’s third-leading scorer at the time of his call-up.
At Wednesday's morning skate, Sykora told reporters he was “super without words,’’ at the prospect of making his debut.
“It’s super exciting for me playing with those guys,’’ he said of his linemates, Will Cuylle and Vincent Trocheck. “I just want to bring them some energy, some juice, and be good on the forecheck.”
Getting called up now doesn’t guarantee anything for the future for Sykora, of course. Brett Berard played 35 games for the Rangers last season and looked good, but he wasn’t able to make the same kind of impression this season, and has bounced back and forth between the Rangers and Hartford.
Like Berard, the 5-10, 179-pound Sykora’s game is built around speed, and tenacious forechecking. In that way, he is similar to Tye Kartye, who’s made an instant impact since being claimed off waivers from Seattle last month. A team can only carry so many third-line forechecking forwards on its roster, however, so whether this look now will lead to Sykora making it as a full-time NHLer soon remains to be seen.
Fortescue, from Pearl River, about 15 miles from the Rangers’ practice rink in Greenburgh, was a third-round pick in 2023, the same year the Rangers took Perreault in the first round. Coach Mike Sullivan said Monday he wanted to get Fortescue (6-2, 195) into a few practices first, to “get him acclimated, (and) try to put him in a position to succeed,’’ before putting him into a game.
There is evidence on the current roster that playing a small amount of games at the end of the season can help a prospect, though. Robertson spent four seasons in Hartford before playing his first two NHL games in the last two games of last season. He then made the team out of training camp this season as the seventh defenseman, before eventually working his way into the top six.
Perreault left Boston College a year ago, after his sophomore year, signed his entry level contract, and played five games for the Rangers at the end of last season. He has said those games helped prepare him for this season.
Will playing these games now help Sykora, Chmelar, Fortescue and Garand going into next season? There’s only one way to find out.
“Being around these guys, I think it's going to push me, and kind of make me see what I need to work on,’’ Fortescue said Monday. “And I think that's something that I'm excited (about), and kind of having that opportunity to come here is going to be able to show me that as quick as possible. And I'm going to try and learn the best I can from all these guys and then take what I've learned in this short time and use it into the summer to try and get ready for next year as well.’’
Colin Stephenson covers the Rangers for Newsday. He has spent more than two decades covering the NHL and just about every sports team in the New York metropolitan area.
