Rangers rookie camp opens Wednesday with few, if any, roster spots to fill
Brennan Othmann at Rangers practice on Sept. 15, 2022 Credit: Patrick E. McCarthy
The real kickoff for the Rangers’ next crack at trying to win their first Stanley Cup since 1994 won’t come until next week, when veterans report for training camp. But on Wednesday the Blueshirts will take the first step of their 2023-24 season when 24 players report for rookie camp at the team’s practice facility in Greenburgh.
Brennan Othmann, the Rangers’ first-round pick in the 2021 NHL draft, is the biggest name among the group of players that will get a one-week head start on preparing for the upcoming season, as he begins his first year as a professional.
“I did really well in junior, [but] obviously at the pro level, I haven't really established myself yet,’’ Othmann said at the Rangers’ Prospect Development Camp in July. “I went over to Switzerland, if you want to count as a pro level over there, but [it wasn’t] North American style of play. They just told me to get bigger and stronger, and come into camp and try to fight for a job and see what I can do. And go from there.’’
Gabe Perrault, the team’s 2023 first-round pick, is attending Boston College and won’t be at rookie camp, but that is according to plan.
“We want to support them whatever decision they make, and help them have the best careers, whether it's major junior, college or European pro, and facilitate whatever they may need, within reason, to help them,’’ director of player development Jed Ortmeyer said in July.
The odds, however, are against anyone who is reporting Wednesday from making the final roster when the Rangers open the NHL season Oct. 12 in Buffalo.
The roster seems pretty well set, and both Othmann and 2022 second-round pick Adam Sykora are left wings, the same position as Artemi Panarin, Chris Kreider and Alexis Lafreniere. It will be hard for either to crack the roster in anything other than, at best, a fourth-line role. Given their youth (Othmann is 20 and Sykora 19), the Rangers may prefer them getting first- or second-line ice time with their Hartford farm team rather than fourth-line ice time with the parent club.
Perhaps the player at rookie camp who has the best chance of making the NHL roster is 22-year-old Matthew Robertson, a 6-3, 211-pound defenseman who has spent the last two seasons in Hartford. A strong showing in training camp could put Robertson, a second-round pick in the 2019 draft, in the mix to be the sixth or seventh defenseman.
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.
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