WHO’S HEADING NORTH 

The New York Rangers have announced their first round of cuts and they are as follows:

***** UPDATE *****

According to Andrew Gross in his Rangers Rants,blog for the (Bergen) Record "For technical reasons regarding waivers, Tyler Arnason, Dane Byers, Corey Locke, Patrick Rissmiller and Jordan Owens are continuing training camp with Hartford (AHL) but are still part of the Rangers' current plans. Hartford practices Saturday, Sunday and Monday with their first game Wednesday."

The technical explanation for the move comes from Mike Obernauer of the NY Daily News Blueshirts Blog who explains it this way, "

"Okay, so technically there are 34 players still officially in Rangers camp, but forwards Tyler Arnason, Dane Byers, Corey Locke, Jordan Owens and Patrick Rissmiller have been sent to "continue training camp with Hartford" – those five guys would need to pass through waivers to go down to Hartford, so this maneuver puts that off until it's necessary and leaves some insurance forwards still technically in camp. Locke and Byers will play in one more preseason game, likely Saturday in Boston, but it's likely their next one will be in a Wolf Pack sweater. And then, given the Rangers' situation at center, Arnason shouldn't stray too far from a phone."

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Thanks to MikeA for the update information

PLAYERS ASSIGNED TO HARTFORD (AHL) ON 9/17/09:

Goal: Miika Wiikman

Defense: Trevor Glass, Brent Henley, Sam Klassen, Mike Sauer, David Urquhart, Nigel Williams

Forwards: Andres Ambuhl, Daniel Bartek, Devin DiDiomete, Brodie Dupont, Dan LaCouture, Matt Maccarone, Justin Soryal, Dale Weise

PLAYERS RETURNED TO JUNIORS ON 9/17/09:

Goal: Scott Stajcer (Owen Sound, OHL)

Defense: Tomas Kundratek (Medicine Hat, WHL)

Forwards: Ryan Bourque (Quebec, QMJHL), Roman Horak (Chilliwack, WHL), Ethan Werek (Kingston, OHL)

PLAYERS STILL IN NEW YORK RANGERS TRAINING CAMP:

Goal: Chad Johnson, Henrik Lundqvist, Steve Valiquette, Matt Zaba

Defense: Michael Del Zotto, Matt Gilroy, Dan Girardi, Ilkka Heikkinen, Corey Potter, Wade Redden, Michal Rozsival, Bobby Sanguinetti, Alexei Semenov, Marc Staal

Forwards: Artem Anisimov, Tyler Arnason, Sean Avery, Brian Boyle, Donald Brashear, Dane Byers, Ryan Callahan, Paul Crowder, Chris Drury, Marian Gaborik, Evgeny Grachev, Christopher Higgins, Ales Kotalik, Enver Lisin, Corey Locke, Jordan Owens, P.A. Parenteau, Vinny Prospal, Patrick Rissmiller, Aaron Voros

There were no major surprises on this list. The only thoughts we had are that A) Mike Sauer got sent down so soon and B) Miika Wiikman was never given a game with the big club.

In terms of who’s going where . You know the names that are a lock to stay in the Big Apple. Lundqvist, Girardi, Redden, Rozsival, Staal, Avery, Brashear, Callahan, Drury, Gaborik, Higgins, Kotalik, and Prospal. That’s 13 names. That leaves them needing ten more to round out the roster.

Our front runners for those remaining jobs are as follows.

Goal: Valiquette

Defense: Del Zotto, Gilroy, Semenov

Forwards: Anisimov, Boyle, Byers, Grachev, Lisin and Parenteau

That means that heading to the Capitol City would be Johnson and Zaba in the net, Heikkinen, Potter, Sanguinetti on defense with Arnason, Crowder, Locke, Owens, Rissmiller and Voros up front. Combined with who is already here, this is going to be one formidable line up. We’ll even take it one step further and name Dale Weise team Captain along with Owens and Potter as his Assistant Captains.

So now you’ve got our final analysis of who’s  staying and who’s going. What do you think?