- Pat Leonard of the NY Daily News: The Rangers have 25 players left at camp and will cut that number to 22 by their season opener next Wednesday. Dylan McIlrath and Raphael Diaz are battling for the seventh defenseman spot. Emerson Etem and Tanner Glass appear to be battling for the 13th forward. Jayson Megna is still on their roster, but didn’t play on Monday and isn’t expected to play tonight. Viktor Stalberg and Oscar Lindberg have unofficially made the team.
- Tom Gulitti of The Record: Pavel Zacha will only be on the Devils opening night roster if they feel he is NHL ready or “really close.” They won’t keep him around just to gain some experience before returning junior.
“That nine-game window is important,” Hynes said. “It’s really player specific in a sense that if they’re really close to making the team and you have to make a pretty solid decision, then there’s big value there because you get those extra games, regular season games, which is different. So, there is huge value to that.
“If it’s keeping someone just to keep him and give him the experience, that’s a different situation. That’s not developmentally good for the guys.”
- Chris Hine of the Chicago Tribune: Antti Raanta played 14 games last season for the Blackhawks, he spent a day with the Cup, but the team didn’t put his name on the Cup. A Finnish report said Raanta told them he was rooting against the Blackhawks after he lost his backup job – Raanta denied the report.
- Dave Isaac of the Courier Post: Michael Raffl and Sean Courturier missed practice yesterday with “upper-body injuries.” Michal Neuvirth was given a maintenance day after leaving Monday’s morning skate early, but is expected to be ready for tonight. Matt Read said he’s been dealing with a charley horse.
- Chuck Gormley of CSN Mid Atlantic: In the next couple of days, Capitals Nicklas Backstrom (hip) and Brooks Orpik (wrist) could be cleared for non-contract practices.
“I don’t have the authority to make that decision, but it looks like it’s getting closer to that,” Trotz said. “Backy has been skating very well in controlled conditions and once you get into practice you’ve got to avoid people a little bit and we have to see how he reacts to that.”
Marcus Johansson (back) and Michael Latta (lower-body) are expected to return tonight. Chris Brown is expected to miss a few weeks with a hand injury.
- Jeremy Rutherford of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Blues defenseman Carl Gunnarsson is listed as day-to-day with a groin injury he suffered on Monday. Robert Bortuzzo (lower-body) and Jori Lehtera are expected to return tomorrow.
