Matthew Robertson's last preseason chance to affect Rangers' decision-makers

Entering his team’s last preseason game Friday at UBS Arena against the Islanders, Rangers coach Peter Laviolette still had a couple of decisions to make before finalizing his team’s roster for the regular-season opener Wednesday in Pittsburgh.

Jimmy Vesey’s lower body injury, which the Rangers said will keep him out a few weeks, likely means Adam Edstrom (team-leading three preseason goals entering Friday) will make the team. Injuries to defenseman Ryan Lindgren, who might not be ready for opening night, and to Artemi Panarin, whose status is more murky, have kept the door open for a couple of other spots, as well.

Brennan Othmann, the team’s first-round draft pick in 2021, stepped into Panarin’s spot on the left of Vincent Trocheck and Alexis Lafreniere on Friday. If Panarin is a question mark for the season opener, Othmann might hang around for a game or two into the regular season as insurance.

There’s also a group of players in a battle to fill Lindgren’s spot for the opener. Rookie Victor Mancini has caught everyone’s eyes with a great preseason that includes a couple of goals, and veterans Chad Ruhwedel and Connor Mackey are competing as well.

But it is Matthew Robertson who gets the last look in the final preseason game. Robertson, 23, a second-round pick 2019, has played three seasons with AHL Hartford but has yet to make his NHL debut. He played in the Rangers’ preseason opener in Boston but left that game midway through the second period with an undisclosed injury. At the time, it seemed that injury would effectively end his chances of making the team. But it did not.

“I think anytime you're young and you're trying to make an impression, if you're not able to make that impression, it becomes a little bit more difficult,’’ Laviolette said. “That being said, we think he's a good player. He's still here.

“We're trying to get an evaluation we can talk about."

Laviolette said Robertson stood out during rookie camp, and played well in two rookie games against the Flyers before the main training camp started. When Lindgren was injured after a fight with the Islanders’ Scott Mayfield in the teams’ first preseason meeting at the Garden last week, that created an intense competition for a short-term spot.

But even before the Lindgren injury, though, Robertson knew the departure of Erik Gustafsson as a free agent over the summer meant there were spots available on the roster as the sixth and seventh defensemen. And entering camp, he believed he was in a good position to compete for those spots.

“For me, it's little things in my head, trying to stay confident,’’ he said in rookie camp. “And that's a big part of me. When I'm playing confident, I'm playing my best game, and I think last year was a good stepping stone of figuring how I need to play, as a ‘D’ man -- knowing when to simplify, and just finding my game, using that to move forward."

In the competition to fill Lindgren’s spot, Robertson and Mackey are lefthanded shots, and Mancini and Ruhwedel are righthanders. With K’Andre Miller and Zac Jones as the only lefthanders currently in the top six defensemen, being lefthanded might work to Robertson’s advantage, but only if he can make a good impression in his last chance Friday.

By Colin Stephenson

colin.stephenson@newsday.comColinSNewsday

Colin Stephenson covers the Rangers for Newsday. He has spent more than two decades covering the NHL and just about every sports team in the New York metropolitan area.