The sight from the first three days of training camp was telling.
There was Matt Rempe, the 6-foot-9 forward, rotating in with the Rangers’ fourth line behind Jaroslav Chmelar for the first two sessions. There was Rempe, finally Saturday, taking the first reps with the fourth line.
“Whatever rep you’re getting, just make the most of it,” Rempe said from his locker Thursday morning, but the lack of continuity sent a signal.
Rempe knew entering training camp that he had a lot to prove. His thumb injury — and the two procedures that followed his fight with Ryan Reaves — limited him to just 26 games last season. His last NHL game before Monday’s 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’s “100 percent” desperation to land a spot on the Blueshirts’ roster.
“Being on the team the last couple years … a lot of it, like last year, was hurt and wasn’t really around at all,” Rempe said pregame. “It’s been a long time for me since my last game — always a sense of desperation. I want to be here bad, yeah.”
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’s back to that level. He doesn’t know if there will be a mental hurdle to clear when he drops the gloves for the first time — “I guess we’ll see,” he said — but said his hand has been on another jersey numerous times while training over the summer.
The buzz created by the fan favorite’s arrival back in 2023-24 — when he fought ex-Islander Matt Martin before the faceoff of his first shift — is in danger of being extinguished altogether if he doesn’t 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.
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.
“He’s an unnerved player,” Sullivan said. “He’s a disruptive player. When he’s in the lineup, your opponents take notice, so he has the ability to create that anxiety. … But I think at this point, [Rempe] just needs to play.”
With a condensed camp, there are limited windows to flash that. To showcase that he’s truly recovered from a physicality standpoint, Rempe felt like he had a good summer — and a good start to training camp too.
“I feel like I’m in a good spot,” Rempe said Monday.
But the optics suggest otherwise. And he’s running out of time to change that.
“I think I know what is expected of me,” Rempe said. “Like I think it’s early in camp and stuff, but I know what my game is. I know what’s expected of me and what I gotta bring and what type of elements my game has. I know what I need to do.”
