4:36 PM: Gerard Gallant spoke after practice about the alternate captains and said (NYR):
“It was a good group and it was tough, you hate leaving out guys, too, there are a lot of guys knocking on the door for those roles. I just think that last year we had a great group and why would I change it and take it away from those guys. They are good people and did a good job and I always talk about, it takes 23-guys to be leaders in our group and that is the big part, they have their senior leadership group, but they include everybody in there. That is what is really important.”
10:17 AM: The Rangers have announced that no new players will be named Alternate Captains for this season and that the “A’s” will remain with Chris Kreider, Mika Zibanejad, Barclay Goodrow and Artemi Panarin.
Jacob Trouba, who held one of the other “A’s” last season was promoted to Captain. Ryan Strome, who held the sixth “A” was not retained as a Free Agent.
Adam Rotter: Logistically this made the most sense. They had six last year, Trouba gets promoted, Strome is gone and now they can have two at home and two on the road. Should Adam Fox and/or Ryan Lindgren also have “A’s?” Yes, but there is no easy way to shoehorn them in without some sort of crazy and unnecessary rotation.