The Rangers will prepare for a season in which they will trek back and forth across the continent more often than any time since 1999-2000 by, what else, trekking back and forth across the continent on their exhibition schedule.
After opening camp on Sept. 11, the six-game preseason commences with back-to-back matches in New Jersey and Philadelphia (oh, what possibly could go wrong in a game against the Flyers?) on Sept. 16 and 17, respectively.
The Blueshirts will then spend a few days at their Greenburgh practice rink before the young men go west for a quartet of matches in two more back-to-backs.
The Rangers will play in Calgary on Sept. 23 and in Edmonton the following night before heading to Vancouver and the Changing Places match between Alain Vigneault’s Blueshirts and John Tortorella’s Canucks on Sept. 26.
The preseason will end on Sept. 27 with a match against the Kings in Las Vegas before the team returns to New York for a final handful of prep days for the regular season that will begin in the west on Oct. 3 or 4.
The Rangers, unable to get into the Garden until late October because of the final phase of the building’s renovation project, are expected to play up to eight games on their opening regular-season road trip.
The NHL, which has changed its alignment and format this season so that all teams play home-and-home against every other club in the league, is expected to announce the regular-season schedule once an agreement has been reached regarding participation in the Olympics.
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Mats Zuccarello’s salary arbitration hearing has been set for July 31, though the Blueshirts and his representatives are attempting to negotiate a deal. Zuccarello, who recorded eight points (3-5) in 15 games last year upon joining the club in late March after spending the lockout in the KHL as an unsigned Group II, has a career total of 34 points (11-23) in 67 NHL games.
Ville Koistinen is the last player to go through an arbitration hearing with so few career games, the then-Nashville defenseman doing so in 2008 after having played 48 NHL games. Pittsburgh defenseman Robert Bortuzzo has filed for salary arbitration against the Penguins this year with a career total of 21 NHL games.
Zuccarello, who will turn 26 on Sept. 1, received a Qualifying Offer of $735,000. The winger is believed seeking between $1.5M-and-2M, with the Rangers offering considerably less than that. Under a change in the CBA, teams cannot walk away from arbitration awards of under $3.5M.
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There is no progress regarding talks with Derek Stepan, sources report. Stepan, the club’s first-line center, is a Group II free agent without arbitration rights. Absent pressure points (or an unexpected offer sheet), negotiations with Stepan could well go into September and perhaps bleed into training camp.
The Rangers will likely need to carry 15 forwards on their opening roster because of the post- labrum surgery rehab that will sideline both Ryan Callahan and Carl Hagelin for the first few weeks of the year — but not for enough time to qualify for long-term exemption — and the need to have a healthy spare available on the opening trip.
Because of the crunch that creates, the club appears to have just over $4M of cap space available for Stepan and Zuccarello.