The New York Rangers practice lines provide a clue as to who made the final roster. That became clear later on Monday when several announcements were made. New York is starting the season with 13 forwards, seven defensemen, and two goalies. JT Miller and Artemi Panarin, who have been sidelined due to injury, will both be in the Opening Night lineup on Tuesday.
Forwards
Cuylle-Miller-Zibanejad
Panarin-Trocheck-Lafrenière
Sheary-Laba-Raddysh
Edström-Carrick-Rempe
Pärssinen, Berard
Defense
Gavrikov-Fox
Soucy-Borgen
Vaakanainen-Schneider
Robertson
Goalies
Shesterkin
Quick
Noah Laba won the Lars-Erik Sjoberg Award, given annually to the top Rangers rookie in training camp as selected by the media. He parlayed a strong training camp into a deserved roster spot. Laba should stick at the third line center with significant upside.
Conor Sheary, who came in on a PTO, was signed to a league minimum, one-year, two-way deal. Sheary had a strong preseason and was likely serving of a spot. The main criticism with him making the team is that a deserving young forward who might be the team’s best forechecker and brings energy nightly was sent down. This then becomes the same as Rangers, playing the vets and not the kids. In addition, the backdrop story is that Sheary is married to coach Mike Sullivan’s niece, which hopefully did not impact the decision made but the optics are not good.
Brett Berard was sent down to Hartford of the AHL. He was a loser in the numbers game. Sullivan said the roster is fluid. My guess is that Berard is up within 4-6 weeks, but he deserved a spot on the Opening Night roster. A similar argument can be made for Scott Morrow and Gabe Perreault, who both were sent down to the Wolf Pack.
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