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tRY IT NOWBy the time Tuesday night arrives, the answers to the final questions surrounding the Rangers roster — one that’ll keep changing throughout the weeks and months that follow — will have settled into place.
The status of J.T. Miller (lower-body injury), who returned to practice Friday in a red noncontact jersey.
The status of Artemi Panarin, who missed practice but skated on his own with an upper-body injury.
The names to snag the final spots and whether that symbolizes a jolt of youth, a reliance on veteran stability or a blend of both as a new era begins under head coach Mike Sullivan.
And the dominoes for those remaining roster battles kept falling Friday when the Rangers assigned 22-year-old defenseman Scott Morrow and 20-year-old forward Gabe Perreault to AHL Hartford.
For now, Noah Laba, Brett Berard, Conor Sheary (on a PTO) and Jonny Brodzinski all survived another day in their push for the final two or three spots, depending on whether Sullivan and general manager Chris Drury opt to keep 13 or 14 forwards — something they haven’t decided yet, Sullivan said Friday.
That, then, turned Saturday’s preseason finale into a last tryout before the 82-game slate begins three nights later at the Garden.
“You can’t always control decisions that coaches and management make,” Sullivan said of the push for the final roster spots, “but you can certainly influence them with how you come to the rink every day. And so I would expect that they would be good pros and do everything they can to set themselves up for success and trust that that approach is gonna give them the best chance to meet their own individual goals.”
If their moves suggest anything, they revolve around wanting to get younger skaters consistent ice time in Hartford as opposed to fluctuating Blueshirts minutes.
Perreault, who got his first taste of life with the Rangers in 2024-25, remains a top prospect after going directly from Boston College (108 points in 73 career games) to five NHL games last year.
Morrow, acquired in the K’Andre Miller trade, is just 22 years old and positioned to crack the Rangers blue line at some point.
It doesn’t mean they won’t get summoned eventually. The Blueshirts just opted to avoid igniting the potential spark for now.
“These guys, in our estimation, are NHL players in the making,” Sullivan said, “and our job is to try to create a pathway, to try to help them grow and develop to become what we hope will be the impact players that we think they’re capable of being.
“So we’re really excited about both of those guys. We think they had terrific training camps. Certainly made an impression on everybody.”
Still, the Rangers have complicated calls to make before the opener.
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Laba, 22, has collected five preseason points in four games and flashed potential in a competition with Juuso Parssinen for the third-line center role, and during practice Friday, Laba skated at that spot with Parssinen slotted at left wing.
Sheary, who began training camp as someone with “nothing to lose,” as he told The Post’s Mollie Walker last month, occupied Panarin’s spot on the second line, while Berard, who logged 35 games and collected 10 points as a rookie last year, rotated in. Brodzinski cycled in on the fourth line.
“I feel like I’ve always been versatile,” Parssinen told The Post of the competition for the third center and his ability to also skate on the wing. “… I would like to think that helps for sure, but at the end of the day, even if you’re versatile, you kinda want to find your spot and not bounce around. I don’t care what the spot is, but yeah, I hope it helps.”
It could come down — again — to youth against experience for the final spots, to immediate avenues for ice time against potential lanes that could materialize down the road. It could come down to Sheary possessing 665 career regular-season and playoff games worth of experience and Brodzinski occupying a résumé filled with 213 cameos.
It could come down to Berard possessing 35 and Laba possessing zero.
But for now, Saturday night in Boston, one final audition looms.