Rangers re-sign defenseman Matthew Robertson as camp battle looms

The Rangers kept former second-round pick Matthew Robertson in the fold, signing the restricted free agent to a one-year, two-way deal on Monday. 

If in the NHL, Robertson will make the league minimum $775,000, The Post’s Mollie Walker reported. 

Robertson, who has been in the organization since 2019, has yet to play an NHL game but could have the chance to do so this season.

He will likely be in the competition for the team’s seventh defense spot at training camp along with Chad Ruhwedel and perhaps Ben Harpur after Ruhwedel re-signed last week on a similar two-way deal. 

Getting their blue line in order has become a priority for the Rangers this offseason after July 1 came and went without Jacob Trouba being dealt.

The captain looked as though he could be on the move, with the Red Wings believed to be a potential destination, but a trade was held up as he didn’t want to leave New York with his wife’s hospital residency being a factor, per The Post’s Larry Brooks. 

While a Trouba deal would have instigated a reordering of the blue line, keeping him instead meant that the priority was keeping things relatively intact. 

Though Erik Gustafsson signed with Detroit as a free agent, team president and general manager Chris Drury has otherwise been successful in that pursuit thus far.

Ruhwedel stayed on a two-way, league-minimum deal, while Braden Schneider inked a two-year bridge deal at $2.2 million annually shortly thereafter. 

The one major piece of business yet to be done is re-signing Ryan Lindgren, who filed for arbitration as a restricted free agent.

The Rangers have approximately $5.1 million in salary cap space remaining, so retaining their top-pair defensemen should be more than doable, though it will need to come soon as hearings will take place between July 20-Aug. 4. 

Assuming the situation with Lindgren is resolved amicably, the Rangers will go into the season with five of the same six defensemen who were in the lineup for their playoff run, which ended in a six-game conference finals loss to the Panthers. 

Zac Jones will likely slot into Gustafsson’s spot on the left side of the third pair, presumably with Trouba alongside. 

The Rangers can certainly hope that Robertson will push the UMass product Jones at some point this season, but it’s more probable that the main training camp competition will be for the seventh defense spot, between Robertson and Ruhwedel.