Matt Rempe, Alberts Smits appear to have made Rangers' opening-night roster

Matt Rempe admitted after Friday’s morning skate in Westchester that yes, he was worried for a time about whether he would make the Rangers’ opening-night roster this year.

“You’re always worried about things like that,’’ Rempe, 24, said. “It's a stressful job. You’ve got to perform and put the work in. I really put the work in . . . Yeah, of course I'm always stressed out, worried. But you’ve just got to take it a day at a time and work your bag off.’’

Judging by the lineup that coach Mike Sullivan dressed for Friday’s preseason finale at UBS Arena against the Islanders, it appears Rempe, who had an assist and was credited with eight hits (“I thought there was more than eight,” he joked) has indeed made the team. So, too, has 18-year-old rookie defenseman Alberts Smits, the team’s first-round draft pick this summer. Smits, who had been in an auxiliary locker room throughout training camp, was moved into the main locker room at the Rangers’ practice facility on Friday.

Sullivan wasn’t ready to officially announce the roster that will travel to Boston for the regular-season opener on Tuesday, but he said this of Smits, the No. 5 pick overall who played in the Finnish and German pro leagues last season and played in the Olympics and World Championships for Latvia:

“He’s got a quiet confidence about him. His poise with the puck, you know, he's not looking to just get rid of it . . .  He'll settle it down. He'll go D-to-D. He'll skate it, if there's [open] ice . . .  It's not on and off his stick; he's not looking to just move the puck to somebody else.’’

With Rempe and Smits in the group that faced the Islanders, Jaroslav Chmelar, veteran Taylor Raddysh and defensemen Matthew Robertson and Scott Morrow were not in the lineup. The Rangers won 6-1, 

Chmelar, 23, had been competing with Rempe for the fourth line right wing spot. He made an impression in a late season call-up last year and appeared to get the nod for the spot early on in camp, but he has not stood out in the preseason. And since he is waivers-exempt — meaning he can be sent to the minor leagues without being passed through waivers first — he’s likely to be sent down.

Raddysh has been used as a plug-and-play extra forward in camp and scored a goal in Tuesday’s preseason game against the Islanders at the Garden, and Robertson and Morrow have been the fourth defensive pair in camp. If Raddysh sticks as the 13th forward and the Rangers decide to keep seven defensemen, they will have to make a decision on which one of either Robertson or Morrow sticks and which one to risk losing on waivers. 

And unless they keep three goaltenders, they also face a decision on either young Dylan Garand or veteran Joonas Korpisalo. Garand was a fourth-round draft pick in 2020 who has played at Hartford the last four seasons, and the Rangers traded for Korpisalo over the summer from Boston. Both played a full game in their only preseason appearance, and both allowed three goals to the Devils, though Garand lost, 3-2, to the Devils’ NHL team, while Korpisalo beat the Devils’ minor-league lineup in a shootout, 4-3. But the fact that Garand was in the Hartford group in camp, and not in the NHL group with Igor Shesterkin and Korpisalo, suggests Korpisalo is ahead in that competition.

Notes and quotes: The Rangers announced they have assigned forwards Nathan Aspinall, Cole Beaudoin, Liam Greentree and Carey Terrance, and defensemen Jackson Dorrington and Drew Fortescue to their AHL Hartford farm team.

By Colin Stephenson

colin.stephenson@newsday.comColinSNewsday

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.