Notes from the first day of training camp

Vigneault loves messing with everyone at this time of the year.

Today was the first day of training camp for the New York Rangers, and all players –except for those being held out— participated in conditioning drills. Here are some notes from camp, from the various beat writers:

• Keith Yandle stayed out to do some extra work after the defensemen finished their conditioning.
• Brady Skeji is a very smooth skater, something that will translate well within Alain Vigneault’s system.
• Ryan Graves skated fine.
• Training camp t-shirts say “Work to perfection. Reach new heights.” Ok, news was slow today.
• There will be a battle for backup goalie between Antti Raanta and Magnus Hellberg. You have to think Raanta has the inside track though.
• Unsure if this unseats the current best thing on the internet for Derek Stepan, but it comes close.

• AV said he’d prefer to carry 8 defensemen, but the cap likely prevents this. My guess is that this is in reference to Dylan McIlrath, who would need to have one hell of a camp in order to unseat Kevin Klein on the bottom pair. I don’t think he’s competing with Klein, or anyone for that matter. I think he just needs to show he belongs. Of course, AV could be referring to Brett Bellemore, who is in camp on an invite.
• AV had good things to say about McIlrath.
• Apparently Marc Staal also had a ligament tear in his ankle. Yikes. He’s 100% though.

There will be more to come.