9/30/18 | Crawley has been sent to Hartford.
9/28/18| The Rangers have announced that the following players have made the team to start the season:
- Forwards (13): Pavel Buchnevich, Filip Chytil, Jesper Fast, Kevin Hayes, Brett Howden, Chris Kreider, Vinni Lettieri, Cody McLeod, Vladislav Namestnikov, Ryan Spooner, Jimmy Vesey, Mika Zibanejad, Mats Zuccarello
- Defensemen (8): Fredrik Claesson, Tony DeAngelo, Adam McQuaid, Neal Pionk, Kevin Shattenkirk, Brady Skjei, Brendan Smith, Marc Staal
- Goaltenders (2): Alexandar Georgiev, Henrik Lundqvist
- Injured (3): Matt Beleskey, Brandon Crawley, Boo Nieves
Lias Andersson, Steven Fogarty, Libor Hajek, Ryan Lindgren, Michael Lindqvist, Ville Meskanen, and Rob O'Gara have been sent to Hartford while Chris Bigras, Peter Holland, Marek Mazanec, Cole Schneider, and Dustin Tokarski "have been placed on waivers and will be assigned to the Wolf Pack should they not be claimed."
Adam Rotter: Biggest surprise, by far, is Lias Andersson not making the team and Brett Howden making it. The eight defensemen were expected, Cody McLeod was expected, Georgiev was mostly expected and Vinni Lettieri earned his way, but the Rangers had to make a tough call and went with Howden over Andersson to start.
This doesn't mean Andersson will spend the season in Hartford or be there past the first few games, but it is surprising to see. I felt that Andersson had a really good preseason and deserved to make the team. Howden had a good preseason as well but it just seemed like he would be in Hartford and Andersson would be at MSG on Opening Night. They are similar players with their skill, grit and leadership and I'm guessing the Rangers want to see how Howden looks in a couple of regular season games in a similar way to Filip Chytil last year. It's likely a fourth line role to start for Howden and the Rangers may want Andersson playing more minutes and in all situations, which he can do in Hartford. I expect we will see Andersson at some point before Halloween, but for now Brett Howden gets his chance.
