One of the operable words in rebuilding a team is flexibility. And what helps create flexibility is depth.
So as the Rangers continuing juggling a handful of scenarios in the lead-up to Monday’s start of free agency — including the possibility of signing electric winger Artemi Panarin, whose picture on the scoreboard of the Garden in a Rangers jersey was circulating around the internet on Thursday afternoon following his recent meeting with team brass — the club watched as a handful of hopeful players continued prospects camp in Stamford, Conn.
One of those prospects was defenseman Yegor Rykov, the 6-foot-3, 225-pound Russian who came over as a key piece in the 2018 deadline deal that sent Michael Grabner to the Devils.