Camp Opens With a Roster That Already Has Holes in It

The Rangers spent the summer rebuilding their blue line from the ground up — Durzi, Trudeau, Schneider, a former Canucks defenseman added in late July — and the organizational pitch was straightforward: the late-season defensive tightening was real, and the new pieces would make it stick. That argument holds up fine on paper. It's harder to make when players keep dropping off the availability list before a regular-season game has been played.

Matt Rempe has been on injured reserve since late July with no update. Adam Sykora is out. Vincent Iorio went day-to-day on September 22. Aidan Thompson has been out since September 12. Cole Beaudoin, the OHL prospect acquired mid-camp, is also day-to-day. That's a lot of names in the wrong column for a team that doesn't have much margin behind its top options at several positions.

The blue line concern is the sharpest one. The depth chart behind Durzi drops off considerably — the gap between him and the next option is significant, and there's essentially nothing behind that. The Rangers addressed the top of the defense corps this offseason; they did not address what happens if someone goes down. That's not a criticism of the front office's summer work so much as a fact about where the roster sits right now.

The preseason loss to New Jersey on September 21 was one game and doesn't mean much. The injury list is a different matter. Sullivan and Drury built this offseason around replicating a defensive structure that worked in April. Getting there requires the players who are supposed to execute it to actually be available.