Rangers Off to Europe

The New York Rangers made their last couple of cuts before they headed off to Europe on Monday night, as they sent both Andre Deveaux and Andreas Thuresson down to the AHL, rounding off their roster to 33 players, including the injured Marc Staal, who actually is staying in New York to deal with the last of his post-concussion syndrome symptoms.

The Rangers will be allowed to carry an excess of players through their European trip, to save on any extra costs that may occur due to injury, as they open the season in Stockholm, Sweden against the Los Angeles Kings.  The team will only be able to dress the game maximum of 20 players at once, but the extra bodies around is a comfort for these travelling teams.

Below is how the Rangers line-up currently looks with their extra players:

Forwards		Defense		Goalies
Brad Richards	85	Dan Girardi	35	Henrik Lundqvist	100
Marian Gaborik	75	Marc Staal	25	Martin Biron	10
Ryan Callahan	60	Michael Del Zotto	25
Artem Anisimov	55	Michael Sauer	15
Brandon Dubinsky	50	Ryan McDonagh	15
Derek Stepan	40	Steve Eminger	10
Brian Boyle	35
Wojtek Wolski	35
Mats Zuccarello	35
Brandon Prust	30
Erik Christensen	30
Ruslan Fedotenko	20
Sean Avery	20
Mike Rupp	15
Dale Weise	15	Tim Erixon	15	Scott Stajcer	5
John Mitchell	5	Dylan McIlrath	10
Kris Newbury	5	Brendan Bell	5
Ryan Bourque	5	Stu Bickell	5
Carl Hagelin	5	Blake Parlett	5

With Staal being out of the line-up, I think it is fair to believe that Tim Erixon and Dylan McIlrath will be pushing for the 6-7 spots on the blueline, as they have been all training camp.  Erixon, the more offensive of the two, will likely get the extra push, but that's just a guess on this end.  Erixon may be a good pick for the draft, especially if the draft gets deep.