Rangers\u2019 6-1 win over the Blackhawks Friday night<\/a>. \u201cIt was awesome [watching Perreault debut last year]. I mean, Gabe is one of our best buddies, so we were all in a hurry to get down there and support him. Ryan Leonard played the night before up in Boston, so we got to go to his first game [with the Capitals]. Then we made the drive down the next day, and it was just a memory.\u00a0<\/p>\n\u201cBeing able to be there and support one of your buddies for his first game is pretty special. And I know some of them are coming down for [the game], so I\u2019m excited to see all of them, and it\u2019ll be pretty cool.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
New York Rangers defenseman Drew Fortescue (45) during the first period when the New York Rangers played the Chicago Blackhawks Friday, March 27, 2026 at Madison Square Garden. Robert Sabo for NY Post<\/p>\n
Fortescue skated in his first professional game in front of what he described as \u201ca lot\u201d of friends and family. You could hear them all when he first took the ice for his rookie lap, and again when his name was announced for his secondary assist on Jonny Brodzinski\u2019s second of his two goals.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Since he signed his entry-level contract last weekend, the Pearl River native has expressed how fortunate he feels to start his career so close to home.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cOnce I got to the bench after and I took a stop and kind of looked around and saw everyone,\u201d he said after the game. \u201cI was able to see some of my cousins and family members and my parents in the crowd, definitely was an unbelievable feeling, and a feeling that I\u2019ll never forget.\u201d<\/p>\n
Asked why he felt now was the time to put Fortescue in the lineup, head coach Mike Sullivan said he wanted the Rangers rookie to get on the ice a bit with the team\u2019s limited practice time, have some one-on-one time with defense coach David Quinn and watch some film first.\u00a0<\/p>\n
New York Rangers defenseman Drew Fortescue (45) during the first period when the New York Rangers played the Chicago Blackhawks Friday, March 27, 2026 at Madison Square Garden Robert Sabo for NY Post<\/p>\n
Fortescue, who was the sixth rookie to make his NHL debut this season with the Rangers, ultimately skated on the left of Matthew Robertson on the third defensive pairing.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought he was solid,\u201d Sullivan said of Fortescue. \u201cFor the most part, he played the game with composure. He didn\u2019t just throw pucks away. He made some outlet passes. He had good poise. I thought he had a high-panic threshold. He didn\u2019t throw pucks away when he was under pressure, he protected it. He defended well. I think he\u2019s got a good stick, decent mobility. There\u2019s a lot to like about Drew\u2019s game. For such a young kid in his first NHL game, I thought he played really well.\u201d<\/p>\n
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The Rangers have had six rookies make their NHL debuts this season, including three in the last week alone.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Fortescue joins Adam Sykora, Dylan Garand, Jaroslav Chmelar, Brendan Brisson and Noah Laba. Robertson is also considered a rookie, but the 25-year-old made his debut in the second-to-last game of last season and has skated in 63 of 73 games thus far in 2025-26.\u00a0<\/p>\n
New York Rangers defenseman Drew Fortescue (45) during warmups Robert Sabo for NY Post<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re going to do our best to set them up for success,\u201d Sullivan said of all the youngsters in his lineup. \u201cWe\u2019ve got them surrounded with veteran players that we think can help them when they\u2019re on the ice, but these guys are all good players and they bring a lot of energy to the table. A lot of enthusiasm. The mistakes they make will be mistakes of enthusiasm, and we\u2019ll work through those. We\u2019ll work through those.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ll help them get better at it through the experience, and they\u2019re going to make mistakes. That\u2019s just the reality of it. I think it\u2019s an opportunity here for us down the stretch to get these guys some real experience. We\u2019re just trying to do it the right way.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Just under a year ago, Drew Fortescue was banging on the Madison Square Garden glass alongside his Boston…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":550425,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[8944,4824,4823,385,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-550424","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-boston-college-eagles","9":"tag-chicago-blackhawks","10":"tag-new-york-rangers","11":"tag-nhl","12":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/550424","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=550424"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/550424\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/550425"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=550424"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=550424"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=550424"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}