The New York Rangers opened their NHL training camp with a compressed timeline due to new Collective Bargaining Agreement rules, having just 12 days before their first game. This year's shortened preseason, consisting of four exhibition games instead of the usual six, means players have limited time to demonstrate their skills and integrate into team systems. Head coach Mike Sullivan emphasized the need for efficiency in practices and evaluations to finalize a competitive Opening Night roster amidst these constraints.
Written by the local model on 2026-09-17,
using this article's own text rather than the other coverage of the
same event (that is the story summary below).
Story summary
The New York Rangers opened their NHL training camp on Wednesday with only 12 days until they must finalize their Opening Night roster for a game against Boston. Due to a new Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA), the team has just four exhibition games instead of the usual six, making the evaluation process more challenging. Head coach Mike Sullivan noted that the shortened schedule and reduced number of teams during camp significantly alter how the season will begin. The Rangers aim to address last year's lack of depth by evaluating new players quickly while maintaining conditioning and routine. Among the 16 rookies in training camp, only two stand out for potential roster spots: goaltender Dylan Garand and defenseman Alberts Smits. Garand is competing with veteran Joonas Korpisalo for the backup goalie position behind star Igor Shesterkin. The Rangers expect a competitive camp after Noah Laba's strong performance last season earned him a spot on the team.
Written for “Rangers Hockey Training Camp” on 2026-09-17,
grounded in this article and the 1 other(s) covering the same event.
For the Rangers and the 31 other NHL teams, time is not just of the essence as training camps opened across the league Wednesday.
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camps → open → league
Blueshirts have just 12 days to finalize an Opening Night roster that’s going to springboard the team into a turnaround season.
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that → have → season
They have just four exhibition games — cut down from the usual six thanks to the new CBA — to experiment and figure out what combinations work best.
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combinations → cut → CBA
Shaving a 48-man roster down to 22-23 might be relatively straightforward, but evaluating a team with new faces, ramping up conditioning and establishing a routine in such limited time is not.
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evaluating → shave → time
“I think the format, it changes things significantly,” head coach Mike Sullivan said at MSG Training Center on Wednesday.
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Sullivan → think → Wednesday
“The format of the camp is going to be completely different than what we ran last year.
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we → go → what
Last year, we had three teams.
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we → have → teams
This year, we’re going to have two.
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we → go → two
When you look at starting tomorrow to Opening Night against Boston, we have 12 days.
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we → look → days
We have four exhibition games and two days off built into those 12 days.
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We → have → days
If you take away that time, we essentially have 10 practices, six when they’re not including a game that night.
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they → take → game
We thought long and hard about this, going through our coach’s meetings a month or so ago.
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We → think → meetings
Building this thing out and what we thought made the most sense.
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we → build → sense
“We’re going to get after the team concept right away, start to instill concepts from Day 1 starting [Thursday].
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We → go → Day
And then still try to accomplish what we always try to accomplish in training camp, and that is to get the team ready for Game 1 and provide opportunities for people to show what they can do.
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they → try → what
The consolidated group forces the coaching staff and management to “prioritize what we do every day,” Sullivan said.
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Sullivan → force → what
“I just think the players that are here are the guys that are the closest to playing for the New York Rangers,” the veteran coach continued.
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coach → think → Rangers
“From that standpoint, and it’s a necessity just because of the time constraints, you got to cut the fat off the meat, so to speak.
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you → ’ → meat
Every NHL team is facing the same time crunch, but the Rangers need to maximize the preseason as much as possible.
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Rangers → face → preseason
After they missed the playoffs the past two seasons, a slow start could be detrimental for a club that aggressively retooled in the offseason and is expecting different results.
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that → miss → results
Both Sullivan and Rangers president and general manager Chris Drury felt that a lack of depth was one of the team’s biggest issues last season, and they sounded like they believe it was at least partially addressed in the offseason.
Anything short of returning to the postseason in April will be considered a colossal failure for this team.
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Anything → feel → team
The preparation needed to achieve that goal starts now, and there isn’t any time to waste.
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preparation → need → goal
“My expectation is that we’re going to compete,” Sullivan said.
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Sullivan → go → ?
“I think we have more depth than we had a year ago.
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we → think → depth
I’m hopeful that our team can stay a little bit healthier this year, which should help us.
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which → ’m → us
I think we’ve addressed some of the priorities that we felt were important to help us become more competitive.
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us → think → priorities
“Ultimately, at the end of the day, every team’s going to go into training camp with the goal in mind that we’re going to make the playoffs to give ourselves the opportunity and the privilege to challenge for the Stanley Cup.”
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we → go → Cup
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