status of J.T. Miller <\/a>(lower-body injury), who returned to practice Friday in a red noncontact jersey. <\/p>\nThe status of Artemi Panarin, who missed practice but skated on his own with an upper-body injury. <\/p>\n
The names to snag the final spots and whether that symbolizes a jolt of youth, a reliance on veteran stability or a blend of both as a new era begins under head coach Mike Sullivan.<\/p>\n
And the dominoes for those remaining roster battles kept falling Friday when the Rangers assigned 22-year-old defenseman Scott Morrow and 20-year-old forward Gabe Perreault to AHL Hartford. <\/p>\n
For now, Noah Laba, Brett Berard, Conor Sheary (on a PTO) and Jonny Brodzinski all survived another day in their push for the final two or three spots, depending on whether Sullivan and general manager Chris Drury opt to keep 13 or 14 forwards \u2014 something they haven\u2019t decided yet, Sullivan said Friday.<\/p>\n
That, then, turned Saturday\u2019s preseason finale into a last tryout before the 82-game slate begins three nights later at the Garden.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can\u2019t always control decisions that coaches and management make,\u201d Sullivan said of the push for the final roster spots, \u201cbut you can certainly influence them with how you come to the rink every day. And so I would expect that they would be good pros and do everything they can to set themselves up for success and trust that that approach is gonna give them the best chance to meet their own individual goals.\u201d<\/p>\n
If their moves suggest anything, they revolve around wanting to get younger skaters consistent ice time in Hartford as opposed to fluctuating Blueshirts minutes. <\/p>\n
Brett Berard still in contention to snag one of the Rangers\u2019 final roster spots. Vincent Carchietta-Imagn Images<\/p>\n
Perreault, who got his first taste of life with the Rangers in 2024-25, remains a top prospect after going directly from Boston College (108 points in 73 career games) to five NHL games last year. <\/p>\n
Morrow, acquired in the K\u2019Andre Miller trade, is just 22 years old and positioned to crack the Rangers blue line at some point. <\/p>\n
It doesn\u2019t mean they won\u2019t get summoned eventually. The Blueshirts just opted to avoid igniting the potential spark for now.<\/p>\n
Noah Laba, 22, skating during the Rangers\u2019 rookie training camp in July, has collected five preseason points in four games. Robert Sabo for New York Post<\/p>\n
\u201cThese guys, in our estimation, are NHL players in the making,\u201d Sullivan said, \u201cand our job is to try to create a pathway, to try to help them grow and develop to become what we hope will be the impact players that we think they\u2019re capable of being.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo we\u2019re really excited about both of those guys. We think they had terrific training camps. Certainly made an impression on everybody.\u201d<\/p>\n
Still, the Rangers have complicated calls to make before the opener. <\/p>\n
Conor Sheary skates up ice during the Rangers\u2019 3-1 preseason loss to the Devils on Oct. 2, 2025. Getty Images<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\tRead the expert take on the Blueshirts\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSign up for Larry Brooks’ Inside the Rangers, a weekly Sports+ exclusive.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\tThank you\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
Laba, 22, has collected five preseason points in four games and flashed potential in a competition with Juuso Parssinen for the third-line center role, and during practice Friday, Laba skated at that spot with Parssinen slotted at left wing. <\/p>\n
Sheary, who began training camp as someone with \u201cnothing to lose,\u201d as he told The Post\u2019s Mollie Walker last month, occupied Panarin\u2019s spot on the second line, while Berard, who logged 35 games and collected 10 points as a rookie last year, rotated in. Brodzinski cycled in on the fourth line.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel like I\u2019ve always been versatile,\u201d Parssinen told The Post of the competition for the third center and his ability to also skate on the wing. \u201c\u2026 I would like to think that helps for sure, but at the end of the day, even if you\u2019re versatile, you kinda want to find your spot and not bounce around. I don\u2019t care what the spot is, but yeah, I hope it helps.\u201d<\/p>\n
It could come down \u2014 again \u2014 to youth against experience for the final spots, to immediate avenues for ice time against potential lanes that could materialize down the road. It could come down to Sheary possessing 665 career regular-season and playoff games worth of experience and Brodzinski occupying a r\u00e9sum\u00e9 filled with 213 cameos. <\/p>\n
It could come down to Berard possessing 35 and Laba possessing zero.<\/p>\n
But for now, Saturday night in Boston, one final audition looms. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By the time Tuesday night arrives, the answers to the final questions surrounding the Rangers roster \u2014 one…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":276871,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[42],"tags":[1302,293,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-276870","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-new-york-rangers","9":"tag-nhl","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-united-states","12":"tag-unitedstates","13":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115315346266009631","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276870","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=276870"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276870\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/276871"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=276870"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=276870"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=276870"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}