On Monday afternoon, the New York Rangers announced their roster for the beginning of the 2025-26 regular season. A day before opening up at home against Sidney Crosby and the Pittsburgh Penguins, the Rangers made one final move to set their roster at 23. As expected, they sent down Brett Berard to the Hartford Wolf Pack in the American Hockey League.

Despite having a good training camp, Berard became the odd man out due to the numbers. With Conor Sheary impressing head coach Mike Sullivan enough to make the roster, he signed to a one-year contract worth $775,000 for the league minimum. It’s a two-way deal. Sheary becomes the final player on the 23-man roster. He’s expected to line up on the third line against his former team on Tuesday night.

Most notably, rookie Noah Laba made the Rangers due to a strong showing in camp. The former 2022 fourth round pick had two goals and four assists for six points during preseason. The 22-year-old forward was practicing at center on the third line with Sheary and Taylor Raddysh earlier today. Laba also took some reps on the penalty kill. At the very least, Sullivan liked enough of what he saw from Laba to start him as his checking center. On an entry level contract, he can always be sent down.

Parssinen A Likely Healthy Scratch

Despite having a solid camp, it looks like Juuso Parssinen will likely be a healthy scratch for the season opener at MSG. The 24-year-old forward who was acquired from the Colorado Avalanche last season as part of the Ryan Lindgren trade, was outplayed by Laba during preseason. Also a center with similar size to Laba, Parssinen is signed thru 2026-27 with a $1.25 million cap hit. He’s versatile enough to shift over and play the left side. However, he’s the odd man out along with veteran Jonny Brodzinski for now.

As expected, Sullivan decided to keep the fourth line together. The cohesive trio of Adam Edstrom, Sam Carrick, and Matt Rempe have good chemistry. The energy they provide is why they’ll start the season intact. How long that lasts is to be determined. Given the metrics of both Carrick and Rempe, it’ll be interesting to see how they’re deployed. Both Parssinen and the versatile Brodzinski are better skaters. The coaching staff has better depth than last year. Hopefully, they make good use of it.

Miller and Panarin Are Both Ready

Both J.T. Miller and Artemi Panarin are ready to go for the first game. The Blueshirts sat them out as a precaution, with Panarin missing the whole preseason. We’ll see if he can knock the rust off like he did last year. Almost a year to the day, he picked up two assists in a Rangers 6-0 win over the Penguins on Oct. 9. In fact, he began last season on an eight-game point streak tallying six goals and nine assists for 15 points – helping lead the Blueshirts to a 6-1-1 start.

In his second tour of duty on Broadway, this will be Miller’s first season as captain. A no-nonsense player who wears his emotions on his sleeves, most of the focus will be on Miller to help lead the team back to the postseason. It’ll fall on his shoulders to set the tone. He will be centering Will Cuylle and Mika Zibanejad tomorrow night. They had strong chemistry over the final two months of 2024-25. We’ll see what they have in store this season.

Defense Remains Unchanged

The Rangers decided against putting in a claim for any defenseman earlier today. Instead, they’ll go with the same seven defensemen they’re left with at the start.

Much will depend on the top pair of Adam Fox and Vladislav Gavrikov. Fox is looking for a better year after some inconsistency. Gavrikov was brought in to help Fox. A strong defender who uses his skating to help get out of trouble, the former Los Angeles King is being counted on at even strength the penalty kill. If given the opportunity, he’s capable of contributing offensively.

As for the bottom two pairs, that’s where it gets dicey. It would be a surprise if Braden Schneider didn’t start with Urho Vaakanainen on the third pair. They played together before. However, Sullivan has hinted that he wants to mix in Schneider into the top four at times. With the tandem of Carson Soucy and Will Borgen likely beginning as the second pair, hopefully we can expect Sullivan to stick to his word. It’s imperative for Schneider to become part of the blue line’s success.

Matthew Robertson will be the extra defenseman. Having only two NHL games underneath his belt, the 24-year-old former 2019 second round pick is the backup D if anything goes wrong. Hopefully, he’s up to the challenge.

Goalie Strength

If there’s one strong point, it remains in net. Igor Shesterkin his sixth full season. Still considered one of the game’s best goalies, the key for the former Vezina winner is finding more consistency.

He started out on fire last year, but succumbed to the malaise that doomed the Blueshirts. Despite 61 starts, Shesterkin saw his numbers dip, posting career worsts in goals-against-average (2.86) and save percentage (.905). He still recovered to have six shutouts, matching his career-high set in 2021-22 when he dominated the NHL as the league’s best netminder.

There were way too many defensive breakdowns in front of him. A lack of structure under former coach Peter Laviolette led to opponents taking advantage of wide open scoring chances off odd-man rushes and poor coverage. Along with the unnecessary off ice distractions, there was a dark cloud hanging over MSG. Even after being paid as the league’s highest goalie, when he signed a record contract extension for an $11.5 million cap hit that doesn’t expire until 2033, Shesterkin’s focus wasn’t there. He showed a lot of frustration after being pulled in several blowouts.

In what will be his age 30 season, he’s looking for a bounce back season. If the Rangers are to challenge for the playoffs, they need Igor to win at least 35 games and post a save percentage close to his career average (.917). Fortunately, he still has a dependable backup who can give him a breather.

Jonathan Quick will again reprise his role behind Shesterkin. The future Hall of Famer is signed for one more year at $1.55 million. He went over 400 wins last season. It took longer due to how poorly the team played, but he eventually got there. He brings a calm presence and the capability to steal the occasional game. However, his numbers suffered last season. Quick went from a 2.62 GAA to a 3.17, while his save percentage dropped from .911 to .893.

He is mostly used when the Rangers have back-to-backs or when they play three games in four nights. Quick can be counted on for 20 starts. He remains popular with fans. To think, he once outplayed Henrik Lundqvist to backstop the Kings past the Rangers for the Stanley Cup. To be fair, Quick had the better team. It has to be fun for Lundqvist to get the chance to watch and analyze Quick, who is the lone throwback goalie left with Marc-Andre Fleury calling it a career in a preseason cameo with the Pens.

It’s Sully Time

By bringing in his close friend Sullivan to coach the Rangers after he left the Pens, Rangers team president and general manager essentially traded former assistant coach Dan Muse for Sullivan. In an ironic twist, the Pens hired Muse to replace him. Now, they’ll be matched up against each other in 24 hours.

The experienced Sullivan prefers to play a strict defensive system that emphasizes a zone. The man-to-man that Laviolette employed broke down due to a lack of communication between the defense and forwards. In the latter stages of preseason, Sully experimented with his system. The Rangers blew a lot of leads last season, including in the third period. They frequently allowed the first goal early in periods and gave up backbreaking goals with under a minute left. It’ll be interesting to see if Sully can the bad habits.

Sullivan won two Cups with the Pens, going back-to-back. But that was coaching a prime Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Kris Letang, Jake Guentzel, Bryan Rust, and many other good players. Since that point, they only advanced past the first round once and have missed the postseason the past three years. Can a new setting under the bright lights revive Sully?

Keeping Expectations Realistic

The Rangers have moved on from Chris Kreider, Lindgren, Jacob Trouba, and K’Andre Miller. They replaced Miller by signing Gavrikov, who is an upgrade over what they had playing with Fox. Borgen got a big extension after playing less than two months. His play deteriorated. Is he really a second pair defenseman? Miller wasn’t the easiest player to watch due to his turnovers and blown assignments. However, he was a good skater who drove play. Like I’ve echoed throughout, the defense remains sketchy after the top pair.

Offensively speaking, they’re going to again lean heavily on the top six. That means both Panarin and Miller must lead the way. Zibanejad must have a bounce back season while playing with Miller and Cuylle, who brings some of what Kreider brought. Alexis Lafreniere must get at least 25 goals and between 55 to 60 points. He can’t have as many brain cramps, either. Vincent Trocheck remains a gritty second line center who plays in every situation. His line has to produce like they did two years ago while paying more attention to detail.

What about the supporting cast? If Laba works out, he can probably score 10 goals and put up 25 to 30 points. But he’s a true first-year pro who hardly played in the AHL. Expectations have to be realistic. Who knows what to expect. How much will Sheary and Raddysh score? What about the fourth line? There are a lot of questions remaining.

Hopefully, Berard along with top prospect Gabe Perreault and forgotten first round pick Brennan Othmann can perform well for the Wolf Pack. Fringe players shouldn’t be safe. Especially if the scoring thins out. The kids should get a look eventually. Hopefully, that includes defenseman Scott Morrow. If anyone’s seen what the second power play unit looks like, it’s an abomination. Schneider can’t play the point. They actually might use Rempe on it as a net front presence. That’s insanity.

Sullivan has hinted at wanting to give Lafreniere some looks on the top unit. If it means splitting up Trocheck and Zibanejad, he should do it. Don’t be too predictable. That’s why the power play fell apart last season.

Season Prediction

I’ve debated this back and forth. The Rangers aren’t on par with the upper echelon of the Metropolitan Division. They should rank behind the Carolina Hurricanes, New Jersey Devils and Washington Capitals. All boast better offenses and are deeper. The Caps are probably the best defensive team followed by the Canes. The Devils are starting the year with guys out. But they should be formidable.

For the Rangers to be successful, they must win the games that they’re supposed to. Something they failed to do last year. There were too many no shows. They suffered bad losses to Buffalo, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia and Nashville. The only team they handled was the New York Islanders.

The Eastern Conference remains strong up top. You can probably count at least six teams who will return to the playoffs. That should include the defending champion Florida Panthers, who are without Aleksander Barkov (out for season) and won’t have Matthew Tkachuk available until the calendar year turns. Here’s my six with three per division:

METROPOLITAN THREE

1. Hurricanes
2. Devils
3. Capitals

ATLANTIC THREE

1. Lightning
2. Maple Leafs
3. Panthers

If I include the Ottawa Senators, who have the foundation to return to the postseason, that only leaves one spot up for grabs. The Montreal Canadiens could be due to for a letdown. The Detroit Red Wings still can’t be trusted. The Buffalo Sabres boast even more offense and made an upgrade on the blue line, but will start the year with Alexandar Georgiev in net with Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen out.The Columbus Blue Jackets are a team to watch. They have the building blocks up front. Is the defense and goaltending good enough?

Basically, what you’re left debating is a lot of bubble teams with question marks. Where does that leave the Rangers? They have the goalie and a legit top pair. They still have trusted stars. There’s actually some promising young players who could change the script. Maybe they can find their way in.

Record: 42-35-5

89 Points

4th in Metro

WC2