{"id":912237,"date":"2026-09-28T01:14:11","date_gmt":"2026-09-28T01:14:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/912237\/"},"modified":"2026-09-28T01:14:11","modified_gmt":"2026-09-28T01:14:11","slug":"rangers-to-carry-alberts-smits-on-opening-night-roster-pro-hockey-rumors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/912237\/","title":{"rendered":"Rangers To Carry Alberts Smits On Opening Night Roster \u2013 Pro Hockey Rumors"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Rangers have informed reigning fifth overall pick\u00a0Alberts Smits<\/a> that he\u2019ll break camp, reports Mollie Walker of the New York Post<\/a>. The 18-year-old defender is one of five 2026 draft picks still left on NHL rosters before tomorrow\u2019s submission deadline, joining the Maple Leafs\u2019\u00a0Gavin McKenna<\/a> (#1 overall), the Sharks\u2019\u00a0Ivar Stenberg<\/a> (#2), the Jets\u2019\u00a0Viggo Bjorck<\/a> (#8), and the Ducks\u2019\u00a0Nikita Klepov<\/a> (#15).<\/p>\n

Smits was the second defender off the board last June, one pick after the\u00a0Sabres selected Daxon Rudolph<\/a>\u00a0as the first blue-liner taken in what was viewed as a deep class. He\u2019s the first Rangers pick to break camp in his post-draft season since 2020 first-overall pick\u00a0Alexis Lafreni\u00e8re<\/a>, and he\u2019ll presumably be the first 18-year-old defenseman to play for the Blueshirts since\u00a0Dave Maloney<\/a>\u00a052 years ago. He\u2019ll do so after a preseason that saw Smits post an assist and a +2 rating in three outings.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s not to say Smits lacks professional experience. The Latvian defender made his Finnish pro league debut with Jukurit in his age-16 season before splitting last season between them and EHC Munich in Germany. It\u2019s certainly not unheard of for a defender to jump from Europe to the North American pros in his post-draft season, but it\u2019s usually preceded by some AHL seasoning before an NHL debut. That won\u2019t be the case for Smits, who\u2019s been taking line rushes on the third pairing alongside Braden Schneider<\/a>\u00a0throughout camp.<\/p>\n

Prospect evaluators were split on Smits\u2019 profile. Steven Ellis of Daily Faceoff<\/a> ranked him the #14 prospect in the league over the offseason, while some left him out of their pre-draft top 10 entirely because of concerns about his decision-making at NHL speed. Nonetheless, he almost universally projects as a future top-four threat in Manhattan, giving them a mobile second-pairing anchor behind (or potentially with) the top-flight Adam Fox<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Smits was exceptional for Latvia at the 2026 World Juniors, posting a goal and four assists in five games. He also added six assists in 12 games for the senior team across the Olympics and World Championship. In 43 club games with Jukurit and Munich, he had a 6-8\u201314 scoring line with a -3 rating.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s clear the Rangers won\u2019t over-extend Smits early on. He may\u00a0dress on opening night against the Bruins, but with the Rangers slated to carry eight defensemen out of the gate, he should be part of a rotating cast on the bottom pairing with\u00a0Matthew Robertson<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Scott Morrow<\/a> until one of them\u00a0takes the reins.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Rangers have informed reigning fifth overall pick\u00a0Alberts Smits that he\u2019ll break camp, reports Mollie Walker of the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":912238,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[433],"tags":[183898,49,48,751,448,82],"class_list":["post-912237","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-alberts-smits","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-new-york-rangers","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/912237","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=912237"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/912237\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/912238"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=912237"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=912237"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=912237"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}