After reaching Eastern Conference finals last season, can Rangers improve?
Igor Shesterkin of the Rangers makes a kick save against the Lightning during the first period in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference Finals of the 2022 Stanley Cup Playoffs at Amalie Arena on June 11 in Tampa, Fla. Credit: Getty Images/Julio Aguilar
Training camp opens for the Rangers on Wednesday, and after their first playoff appearance in five years ended with a berth in the Eastern Conference finals last spring, there is only one question for the Blueshirts entering the 2022-23 season:
Can they repeat – or improve on – what they did last season?
“Every team's goal, and we're no different, is to make the playoffs,’’ Rangers general manager Chris Drury said Thursday, in a sitdown with reporters during the team’s rookie camp. “And once you're in, obviously everyone hopes to win the (Stanley) Cup.
“We’ve got to come into the right mindset, mentally, physically, being ready,’’ he said. “Get better every single day, and hopefully, if we get our chance in the playoffs, we can make some hay.’’
After a three-year rebuild, the Rangers opened their window to Stanley Cup contention last season, riding the Vezina Trophy-winning goaltending of Igor Shesterkin early, and taking advantage of all the salary cap space they had to juice up the roster at the trade deadline and power their way to a 110-point regular season and an appearance in the final four. They came from behind to win seven-game series in the first two rounds, against Pittsburgh and Carolina, before running out of gas in a six-game loss to then-defending champion Tampa Bay.
They didn’t retain any of the trade deadline acquisitions they made, and they said goodbye to center Ryan Strome and goaltender Alexandar Georgiev over the summer. But the core of the team – Mika Zibanejad, Chris Kreider, Artemi Panarin, Adam Fox, Jacob Trouba and Shesterkin – returns, and coach Gerard Gallant will certainly be more comfortable with the group in his second season behind the bench.
Newcomer Vincent Trocheck replaces Strome as the No. 2 center, and youngsters K’Andre Miller, Alexis Lafrenière, Filip Chytil and Braden Schneider are coming off impressive campaigns and look ready to play even bigger roles this season. They will need to, because with the contract extensions of Zibanejad and Fox kicking in this year, the Rangers don’t have the cap space to add to the roster in-season, the way they did last spring. So the kids, including the newly resigned Kaapo Kakko and the returning Vitali Kravtsov, will need to step up.
There is relatively little intrigue entering camp. On defense, the top five are clear: Fox, Trouba, Miller, Ryan Lindgren and Schneider. The trade of Patrik Nemeth to Arizona creates an opening for a sixth defenseman, and Zac Jones, Matthew Robertson and Libor Hajek will compete for the sixth and seventh spots. Nils Lundkvist, who has requested a trade, is not expected to report. Drury said he is still open to bringing in a veteran on a camp tryout, and he also will be checking the waiver wire to see if an intriguing option becomes available at some point.
As for the forwards, Zibanejad, Kreider, Panarin and Trocheck are the top four, and Lafreniere and Kakko should come out of camp in the top six. Chytil, Kravtsov and Barclay Goodrow will round out the top nine, and the fourth line will come out of the group of Sammy Blais, Ryan Reaves, Ryan Carpenter, Dryden Hunt, Julien Gauthier and old friend Jimmy Vesey, who is in camp on a tryout.
Rookie Will Cuylle, a second round draft pick in 2020, and 2021 first-rounder Brennan Othmann, both members of Canada’s gold-medal-winning World Junior team, each have an outside shot of making the roster, but they are definitely longshots.
Drury was asked if there is room for a surprise on the roster when the Rangers open the season Oct. 11 at the Garden against Tampa Bay.
“It's training camp, you know?’’ he said. “It's a tryout. There are six exhibition games, there's practices, we're evaluating players every single day. So honestly, you just never know what's going to happen. That’s why you have camp. And you just pick the team on paper and start Game 1.’’
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.
