Thursday, September 15, 2011

Rangers Training Camp Roster Released?

There have been conflicting reports this evening on whether the Rangers training camp roster has been released, at least officially.  Jim Cerny tweeted that it was not our yet, but Steve Zipay posted the list over at Newsday saying that it was the roster though it was subject to change.  Nothing really notable about the list Zipay has as most of the Traverse guys were invited to camp along with a number of the Hartford players.  In total, if Zipay's list is right the Rangers will have 35 forwards, 20 defenders and 6 goaltenders.  Obviously this group will get cut down pretty quickly with the first preseason game being on Wednesday.  Many of these guys are just here for the conditioning tests and scrimmages this weekend.

Here is the full list via Zipay's posting:


Forwards
Artem Anisimov
Jonathan Audy-Marchessault
Sean Avery
Ryan Bourque
Brian Boyle
Ryan Callanan
Erik Christensen
Andre Deveaux
Brandon Dubinsky
Ruslan Fedotenko
Marian Gaborik
Tommy Grant
Carl Hagelin
Jordan Hickmott
Tayler Jordan
Kale Kerbashian
Chad Kolark
Shane McColgan
Randy McNaught
J.T. Miller
John Mitchell
Kris Newbury
Brandon Prust
Brad Richards
Mike Rupp
Michael St. Croix
Derek Stepan
Kelsey Tessier
Christian Thomas
Andreas Thuresson
Dale Weise
Jason Wilson
Wojtek Wolski
Andrew Yogan
Mats Zuccarello

Defensemen
Lee Baldwin
Brendan Bell
Stu Bickel
Collin Bowman
Peter Ceresnak
Michael Del Zotto
Steve Eminger
Tim Erixon
Dan Girardi
Sam Klassen
Tomas Kundratek
Ryan McDonagh
Dylan McIlrath
Jyri Niemi
Jared Nightingale
Samuel Noreau
Blake Parlett
Mike Sauer
Marc Staal
Pavel Valentenko

Goaltenders
Martin Biron
Chad Johnson
Henrik Lundqvist
Jason Missiaen
Scott Stajcer
Cameron Talbot

Photo: Jaroslav Halak Honors Pavol Demitra On New Goalie Mask

Thousands gathered in Slovakia today to pay tribute to the life of Pavol Demitra, and many in the NHL will play with Demitra in their hearts this season, but St. Louis Blues goaltender Jaroslav Halak will be wearing Demitra’s likeness on his helmet each time he steps on the ice this season.  InGoal Magazine has put out pictures of the mask that the Blues netminder will be wearing.  Head Strong Grafx did a brillant job in executing this beautiful tribute from the Slovakian netminder to his countryman and former captain.  The fact that Halak will be wearing this while playing for St. Louis where Demitra had some of his finest seasons only makes it more special.

Head over to InGoal Magazine to see the other amazing shots of the rest of Halak’s mask for the upcoming season.

Redden Not Invited To Training Camp, Could Split Be Coming?


While we are still waiting for the official training camp roster to be released, Steve Zipay is reporting that Wade Redden will not be invited to attend training camp.  This is somewhat surprising as it was reported a few months ago that Redden was planning to attend camp this year.  There was no doubt that Redden was not going to be on the team, but given how professionally he handled himself and the mentor-ship he gave to the young defenders like Ryan McDonagh last season it is surprising if not disappointing that they didn’t allow him to come to camp.
The remote possibility does exist that Redden could refuse the assignment to Hartford, thus voiding the $16.5 million remaining on his contract with the Rangers over the next three seasons.  Redden's agent has said before that there were no plans to do this, so it is an unlikely scenario, but it would be one explanation for not even bothering to put him on the camp roster.  It is very unlikely that will come to pass, but maybe the desire to get another shot at the NHL is worth it to Redden.