from Andrew Gross of Ranger Rants,

Following this morning’s roster cuts, the Rangers worked on the power play (which they’ll also do on Thursday).

And one thing that jumped out was that Marty St. Louis was in the middle on one of the units, taking draws. St. Louis says, other than faceoffs, playing center on the power play is not really that big of an adjustment.

However, coach Alain Vigneault said today that St. Louis will be tried at center for not just power plays but five-on-five play in at least one of the last two preseason games.

A couple of factors at work here:

1. As Vigneault constantly stressed today, salary cap considerations are going to impact the makeup of the Opening Night roster. It sounds as if there’s a good chance Derek Stepan (out until likely late October with a broken left fibula and still on crutches) will have to be included rather than put on long-term injured reserve. If that’s the case, the Rangers’ roster may be just 22 players (rather than the 23-player maximum) including Stepan, again meaning if the Rangers carry 13 forwards, there will really only be 12 healthy ones.

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