Rangers are ready to enter their third consecutive season without a captain.
Coach David Quinn announced on Wednesday that the team had appointed four alternate captains: Chris Kreider, Mika Zibanejad, Artemi Panarin and Jacob Trouba. Kreider and Zibanejad used the “A” last season, but the exits of Jesper Fast (Hurricanes) and Marc Staal (Red Wings) left the Rangers with two spots to fill.
Panarin and Trouba are entering their second season at Rangers and are key members of the team’s core.
There was speculation that Kreider or Zibanejad would use the “C” this season, after Quinn said the organization planned to “assess this situation” early in the training camp. But Kreider said the Rangers, who have had no captain since Ryan McDonagh was negotiated in the 2018 negotiation deadline, do not consider not having a captain to be a big problem.
“It may not be something that people want to hear, but I think that many times [the captaincy] it’s more for the fan base than anyone else, ”Kreider said in a Zoom conference call on Wednesday. “At the end of the day, you need a large group of leaders to be successful. I mean, there are several guys in our room who are ready to take on leadership roles. And as I said before, I think even some of the younger guys, guys who are in the second, third year, there will come a time when they need to lead, or get up and say the right thing in the locker room or set an example on the ice .
“There can be no passengers if we want to be successful. You look back at the teams that have been successful in recent years, everyone knows their role, everyone agrees and does their job in the best possible way. These teams have incredible depth. As long as everyone is pulling in the same direction, I think we’ll be in good shape. ”
Zibanejad continued to train with Rangers after the positive test for COVID-19 at the start of the training camp, but his status for Thursday’s opening season against the Islanders was still in the air on Wednesday.
“We will have a clearer picture of what it is going to be,” said Quinn. “In a matter of minutes, this will only be monitored during the game. Obviously, we know that he had COVID and everyone reacts differently to that, so it will certainly be a change decision per shift.
Quinn announced that newcomer Igor Shesterkin would have his first network start of the 2020-21 season. The islanders must start Semyon Varlamov.
The Rangers officially named Morgan Barron, Anthony Bitetto, Colin Blackwell, Libor Hajek, Keith Kinkaid and Matthew Robertson to their taxi squad.