KINGSTON, R.I. — Leading up to Opening Night at Madison Square Garden on Tuesday, the Rangers spent a couple of days as a team in Rhode Island.
They left straight from their preseason finale in Boston and had a team dinner.
On Sunday, players went golfing and to the shooting range before a team-building activity in the evening.
The last time the Blueshirts organized a bonding trip, this one concluding with a practice at Boss Ice Arena at the University of Rhode Island on Monday, was in 2022 under ex-head coach Gerard Gallant.
“It came together through a discussion between Chris [Drury] and I and the leadership group,” new head coach Mike Sullivan said on the eve of his first matchup with his former team of 10 years, the Penguins. “With, you know, obviously a lot of change that was around the team, with a lot of new faces, everything from the coaching staff to player personnel and things of that nature. The thought was brought up to do something like this and find a window of opportunity somewhere at the end of training camp, when we got very close to the semblance of the team, where we could have an experience that would help us get to know one another better in a different setting and create some sort of team-building experience.”
Rookie Noah Laba and veteran wing Conor Sheary, who came into training camp on a professional tryout agreement, were among the 23 players the Rangers took to Rhode Island because they earned spots in the opening-night lineup.
The Rangers signed Sheary to a one-year, two-way deal for the NHL minimum of $775,000, the team announced after practice Monday.
As a result, Brett Berard headed back to Hartford instead of New York from Rhode Island, meaning the 22-year-old Laba is the only youngster who made the Rangers out of training camp.
More than that, Laba looks primed to make his NHL debut Tuesday night at MSG as the third-line center. The 6-foot-3, 214-pounder said he didn’t necessarily surprise himself this training camp because he’s always believed he was capable.
“The player that I watched in the rookie games in Lehigh Valley versus the player that I watched in Boston the other day, I think he’s made leaps and bounds, even just from a confidence standpoint,” Sullivan said of Laba, who skated in the middle of Sheary and Taylor Raddysh on the third line Monday. “I think he physically is capable of playing at this level. He’s big and he’s strong, he brings good size. He can really skate…He’s probably provided evidence to himself that he belongs, and I think you can see it in his confidence when he’s on the ice. We think he’s had a terrific camp.
“I think Labs has proven to us that he’s very capable of playing at this level. I think his physical stature gives him an advantage because physically I think he’s as big and as strong to play against these guys. And this is a big and strong league.”
The Rangers also should be fully healthy to start the 2025-26 campaign after J.T. Miller and Artemi Panarin were full participants Monday following their respective injury hurdles this preseason.
And so the Blueshirts roster is set.
A roster that is charged with getting the ball rolling on making up for last season’s implosion.
The Rangers ensured they got an early start in Rhode Island.
“I feel like we got a lot of work done,” Braden Schneider told The Post. “I feel like we got our systems in place. I think we’re really starting to feel comfortable with our identity and what we want to accomplish as a team. Everyone’s really buying into it, and now it’s kind of at the point where you got to start putting it into action. I’m excited. I think everyone in our room is excited. I’m really looking forward to [Tuesday].”
