The Rangers trimmed their roster to 22 players on Friday after assigning Brennan Othmann to AHL Hartford and waiving Jonny Brodzinski and Ben Harpur.

With those moves, rookie Will Cuylle officially made the Rangers’ roster for opening night.

The fact the Rangers were willing to lose Brodzinski and Harpur to keep Cuylle on the team speaks volumes to the 21-year-old wing’s training camp performance.

Brodzinski and Harpur were both key depth players for the Rangers, but Cuylle earned this opportunity.

Head coach Peter Laviolette clearly saw something he liked in Cuylle right away, which led to significant opportunities throughout training camp. 

Cuylle was hands down one of the Rangers’ best forwards in the preseason, over which he held his own alongside lineup regulars and recorded three points (two goals, one assist). 

Competing in five of the Rangers’ six exhibition games, Cuylle saw time on both the power play and the penalty kill.

He also got looks next to the likes of Mika Zibanejad, Vincent Trocheck and Filip Chytil, among other established players.

Cuylle probably wasn’t retained to be a healthy scratch.

It would be a disservice to his development to do so.

The Rangers want Cuylle playing significant minutes, so the expectation is that he’ll slot right into the lineup.

That means either Tyler Pitlick or Jimmy Vesey will be watching from the press box to start the season.

Pitlick sustained an upper-body injury in the penultimate preseason game, but Laviolette said he doesn’t expect it to be a long-term issue.

The fact that Cuylle carries a larger cap hit ($828,333) than both Brodzinski ($762,500) and Harpur ($787,500) prevents the Rangers from carrying 23 players on the roster.

Though the Blueshirts are better off sticking with 22, so that they can begin accruing cap space in preparation for the trade deadline on March 9.

The current 22-man roster amounts to $82,824,916 and leaves the Rangers with under $700,000 in cap space.

Othmann will join the Wolf Pack after a relatively strong training camp with the Rangers.

Othmann, the No. 16-overall pick in 2021, didn’t look out of place in the five exhibition games he competed in.

Considering the fact that he is fresh out of juniors, the Rangers were presumably always keen on having Othmann get some significant AHL time.

Zac Jones ($812,500 cap hit) also requires waivers and was certainly an option to be sent down, but he is more at risk of being claimed, so the Rangers likely weren’t considering it.

The Rangers will have five days to work closely with their finalized roster in preparation for opening night on Oct. 12 in Buffalo.