KINGSTON, R.I. — This most likely was never in question, though it is difficult to discern exactly why Ryan Carpenter has essentially been accorded status as an incumbent, but the Blueshirts’ 31-year-old free-agent signee out of Calgary seems to have nailed down a roster spot.
That is the takeaway following head coach Gerard Gallant’s assessment of his team’s penalty-killing capabilities after having lost 2021-22 stalwarts Kevin Rooney, Andrew Copp, Tyler Motte and Ryan Strome to free agency.
“We’d like to get the pairs together as quick as possible but it’s not a huge deal,” Gallant said following Monday’s practice at Boss Arena. “I’ve known Carpenter, the way he’s played, how he kills penalties …
“[Barclay] Goodrow is a good, solid penalty killer, we’ve got [Chris] Kreider and [Mika] Zibanejad, [Vincent] Trocheck’s a good penalty killer. It’s not an issue. We’re real happy with our penalty killing.
“It’s not like we’re taking a step back because we added different players,” the coach said. “I think it’s a step forward, to be honest with you.”
Perhaps by unconscious oversight but perhaps not, Gallant did not cite Jimmy Vesey, ostensibly a PK-specialist who has impressed while on a PTO, as part of the mix.
If Carpenter — who played for Gallant for a couple of seasons in Vegas four and five years ago — is in as fourth-line center while Goodrow opens as a top-six winger, the math indicates that Vesey and Dryden Hunt are competing for the last remaining roster spot up front while Gustav Rydahl will open with the AHL Wolf Pack.
To that end, the Blueshirts’ top-nine lined up with Kreider-Zibanejad-Goodrow; Artemi Panarin-Trocheck-Vitali Kravtsov; Alexis Lafreniere-Filip Chytil-Kaapo Kakko.
The fourth and fifth units lined up with four forwards apiece, as in, Sammy Blais-Carpenter-Ryan Reaves-Hunt; Vesey-Rydahl-Julien Gauthier-Jonny Brodzinski.
Trocheck, working with Panarin, has a ready response when asked how to try and read off a player who, in the center’s words, “Is different from anyone I’ve ever played with.
“He’s extremely talented and thinks the game at a very high level,” Trocheck said. “He’s completely unpredictable. You have to be ready for a pass when you least expect it.”
So, then, how to be ready under this scenario?
“If you’re always ready,” Trocheck said, “you don’t have to get ready in a hurry.”
As part of the club’s bonding experience during this three-day working getaway to Rhode Island, the Rangers were joined at Sunday night’s dinner by 1994 alumni Mike Richter, Adam Graves and Jeff Beukeboom.
“The players wanted those guys there,” Gallant said. “It was meet-and-greet and hockey stuff.”