{"id":339655,"date":"2026-09-07T01:56:12","date_gmt":"2026-09-07T01:56:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/339655\/"},"modified":"2026-09-07T01:56:12","modified_gmt":"2026-09-07T01:56:12","slug":"new-york-rangers-young-defensemen-has-steadily-improved-throughout-summer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/339655\/","title":{"rendered":"New York Rangers Young Defensemen Has Steadily Improved Throughout Summer"},"content":{"rendered":"

Per a recent report, defenseman Drew Fortescue has been hard at work this offseason for the New York Rangers.<\/p>\n

Fortescue currently ranks No. 9 in The Athletic’s Rangers prospects<\/a> rankings, which comes after the blueliner tallied two points across nine games played in 2025-26 after skating 17:23 in his debut on March 27. This past summer, he’s also been heavily focused on his training with a group of Rangers at the usual Ben Prentiss facility in Stamford, Conn.<\/p>\n

Per recent work from Peter Baugh, Fortescue said he went into this summer with specific goals in mind. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of things I think I need to get better at,\u201d Fortescue said per The Athletic<\/a> (subscription required). \u201cIt\u2019s getting stronger, all the little puck touches, breakouts, and all the passing and trying to make sure you put the pucks on guys\u2019 tape, because there\u2019s not a lot of room out there. But I think just the more you play, the more you get used to it. All that is stuff I\u2019m [working] on this summer to try and get better at, so I can give myself a chance.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fortescue’s debut<\/a> for the Rangers in 2025-26 also came after he skated in all 36 games for Boston College \u2014 tallying a career high of 14 points on four goals and 10 assists; he also scored in back-to-back games to open the Eagles’ season.<\/p>\n

His previously mentioned Rangers’ debut on March 27 also saw him earn his first NHL point via an assist. Praise would also come from Rangers’ Head Coach Mike Sullivan.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a lot to like about Drew\u2019s game,\u201d Sullivan had said.<\/p>\n

Fortescue is joined by fellow BC alum Gabe Perreault <\/a>on the Rangers’ roster.<\/p>\n

\"New<\/p>\n

Apr 4, 2026; New York, New York, USA; New York Rangers right wing Gabe Perreault (94) celebrates his second goal against the Detroit Red Wings during the third period at Madison Square Garden. Mandatory Credit: Danny Wild-Imagn Images \/ IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect<\/p>\n

Boston College coach Greg Brown also spoke to The Athletic, saying Fortescue is known for having a mentality centered around improving all aspects of his game. <\/p>\n

\u201cOf course you want [him] to get physically stronger and keep trending in the right direction physically and strength-wise, but as far as on the ice, he understands who he is, and he plays to his identity very well. I don\u2019t have one thing that you would say, \u2018Oh, this is going to have to improve.\u2019 It\u2019s just generally [aiming to] keep getting better in everything.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fortescue also boasts international experience, having represented Team USA at the U20 World Junior Championship in 2024 and 2025. The 6’2″, 195-pound left-hander also won a gold medal at both the U20 Championships and the U18 Championships for the U.S.<\/p>\n

Baugh also noted that Fortescue is potentially a defenseman No. 4 through 6 on an NHL roster<\/a> \u2014 which, as of now, is with the New York franchise. However, given how focused Fortescue is on improving, that projection could definitely improve.<\/p>\n

Fortescue signed his three-year, entry-level contract with the Rangers on March 21.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Per a recent report, defenseman Drew Fortescue has been hard at work this offseason for the New York…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":339656,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[9,11,10],"class_list":["post-339655","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/339655","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=339655"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/339655\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/339656"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=339655"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=339655"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=339655"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}