{"id":856181,"date":"2026-09-22T03:46:13","date_gmt":"2026-09-22T03:46:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/856181\/"},"modified":"2026-09-22T03:46:13","modified_gmt":"2026-09-22T03:46:13","slug":"matt-rempe-desperate-to-not-let-this-rangers-chance-pass-him-by","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/856181\/","title":{"rendered":"Matt Rempe desperate to not let this Rangers chance pass him by"},"content":{"rendered":"

The sight from the first three days of training camp was telling.\u00a0<\/p>\n

There was Matt Rempe, the 6-foot-9 forward, rotating in with the Rangers\u2019 fourth line behind Jaroslav Chmelar for the first two sessions. There was Rempe, finally Saturday, taking the first reps with the fourth line.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWhatever rep you\u2019re getting, just make the most of it,\u201d Rempe said from his locker Thursday morning, but the lack of continuity sent a signal.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Rempe knew entering training camp that he had a lot to prove. His thumb injury \u2014 and the two procedures that followed his fight with Ryan Reaves<\/a> \u2014 limited him to just 26 games last season. His last NHL game before Monday\u2019s preseason game against the Devils was Feb. 5, and head coach Mike Sullivan acknowledged that Rempe simply needs to play games. The emergence of Chmelar over the final two months of the regular season complicated his path back to the right side of the fourth line too. The opening days of a condensed training camp reiterated that notion, and Rempe admitted there\u2019s \u201c100 percent\u201d desperation to land a spot on the Blueshirts\u2019 roster.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cBeing on the team the last couple years \u2026 a lot of it, like last year, was hurt and wasn\u2019t really around at all,\u201d Rempe said pregame. \u201cIt\u2019s been a long time for me since my last game \u2014 always a sense of desperation. I want to be here bad, yeah.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"NewNew York Rangers center Matt Rempe (73) during the New York Rangers training camp, Thursday, Sept. 17, 2026, at the Madison Square Garden Training Center in Greenburgh, N.Y. Robert Sabo for NY Post<\/p>\n

Even after returning from his first thumb procedure in December, Rempe, 24, was a shell of the physical presence the Blueshirts were used to, struggling with shooting, puck movement and anything that involved the left thumb that he broke during the October fight with Reaves. But Rempe said Monday that he\u2019s back to that level. He doesn\u2019t know if there will be a mental hurdle to clear when he drops the gloves for the first time \u2014 \u201cI guess we\u2019ll see,\u201d he said \u2014 but said his hand has been on another jersey numerous times while training over the summer.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The buzz created by the fan favorite\u2019s arrival back in 2023-24 \u2014 when he fought ex-Islander Matt Martin before the faceoff<\/a> of his first shift \u2014 is in danger of being extinguished altogether if he doesn\u2019t carve out a role, though. The shocking numbers from his debut season have become a distant memory too. There were the 47 penalty minutes and three game misconducts against the Devils in 2024, and the old-school bout against Nicolas Deslauriers in a game in February of that year that ended with Rempe scoring the winning goal.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"NewNew York Rangers center Matt Rempe attends the team\u2019s end of season interviews Friday, April 17, 2026, at the Madison Square Garden Training Center in Greenburgh, N.Y. Robert Sabo for NY Post<\/p>\n

So much has changed since then to make his Rangers future murky. There are plenty of factors that could impact that reality over the next week too, with Rempe needing to clear waivers to get assigned to AHL Hartford. The Rangers have worked on helping Rempe with his defensive awareness and reliability, Sullivan said, and Rempe has consistently talked about wanting to add more to his offensive game than just the five goals and 11 points currently on his ledger.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s an unnerved player,\u201d Sullivan said. \u201cHe\u2019s a disruptive player. When he\u2019s in the lineup, your opponents take notice, so he has the ability to create that anxiety. \u2026 But I think at this point, [Rempe] just needs to play.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\tRead the expert take on the Blueshirts\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSign up for Inside the Rangers, a weekly Sports+ exclusive.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\tThank you\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

With a condensed camp, there are limited windows to flash that. To showcase that he\u2019s truly recovered from a physicality standpoint, Rempe felt like he had a good summer \u2014 and a good start to training camp too.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like I\u2019m in a good spot,\u201d Rempe said Monday.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But the optics suggest otherwise. And he\u2019s running out of time to change that.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI think I know what is expected of me,\u201d Rempe said. \u201cLike I think it\u2019s early in camp and stuff, but I know what my game is. I know what\u2019s expected of me and what I gotta bring and what type of elements my game has. I know what I need to do.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The sight from the first three days of training camp was telling.\u00a0 There was Matt Rempe, the 6-foot-9…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":856182,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[110483,4823,385,99,14594],"class_list":["post-856181","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-matt-rempe","tag-new-york-rangers","tag-nhl","tag-sports","tag-training-camp"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/856181","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=856181"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/856181\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/856182"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=856181"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=856181"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=856181"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}