Rangers keep Matt Rempe, place Dylan Garand on waivers to finalize Opening Night roster

The nor’easter that hammered the Northeast over the weekend knocked out power in the area surrounding the Rangers’ training center in Westchester, so the team canceled practice Sunday. The power outage didn’t prevent the team from doing business, however. On Sunday, they placed goalie Dylan Garand and forward Taylor Raddysh on waivers, effectively setting their roster for opening night Tuesday in Boston.

It appears Matt Rempe, the 6-9 forward and fan favorite, has won a spot on the fourth line.

The moves leave the Rangers with 24 players on the roster. That includes injured defenseman Vincent Iorio, who will either go on injured reserve or be waived before Monday's 5 p.m. deadline to meet the 23-player maximum.

There had been some intrigue regarding who would be the final cuts. Most of the roster was obvious throughout training camp, but there were battles between Rempe, Jaroslav Chmelar and Raddysh for the fourth-line right-wing spot, and between Garand and veteran Joonas Korpisalo for the backup goalie job. And there was a question of whether the Rangers would keep 18-year-old defenseman Alberts Smits, their first-round draft pick. If so, it was expected they’d have to expose either Matthew Robertson or Scott Morrow to waivers.

They didn’t, though. Despite the fact that both Smits and Chmelar were waivers-exempt, they kept both. And they held on to both Robertson and Morrow by choosing to keep eight defensemen (for now). They kept both Rempe and Chmelar, and settled on Korpisalo as Igor Shesterkin’s backup, choosing to risk putting Garand, 24, on waivers. On Saturday, they lost defenseman William Trudeau, who was claimed off waivers by Nashville.

“We're aware of who needs waivers (and) who doesn't,” Sullivan had said Thursday, when asked if players’ waivers eligibility would factor into the roster decisions. “But my job as the head coach is to do everything within our power as the coaching staff to . . . try to put the best roster together that gives us the best chance to win.”

Garand, a fourth-round draft pick in 2020 who has played for AHL Hartford the last four seasons, looked good in a three-game audition with the Rangers at the end of last season, and had hoped to take over for the retired Jonathan Quick as Sheserkin’s backup. Instead, GM Chris Drury traded for Korpisalo over the summer. Korpisalo and Garand each played one full game in the preseason, both against the Devils. Garand lost, 3-2, to a nearly full-strength Devils lineup, while Korpisalo beat a group of mostly AHLers, 4-3, in a shootout. After his game, Garand said, “I'm proud of myself for competing.’’

Waiving Garand is a gamble because if he is claimed, the Rangers would be left with journeyman Spencer Martin as their emergency call-up should either Shesterkin or Korpisalo get hurt.

Raddysh scored a goal in his only preseason game, but it wasn’t enough to convince the Rangers to keep him. They preferred to keep the 6-9 Rempe and 6-5 Chmelar instead.

The roster isn’t official yet, and it currently doesn’t include an extra forward who can step in if one of their four centers – Mika Zibanejad, J.T. Miller, Noah Laba and Joe Veleno – is injured. So it’s possible the Rangers could claim a center off waivers. Or, they could still make a trade.