Rangers know youth won’t be enough when season begins

There is no question the Rangers are extremely excited just looking at the sheet of names of the players attending this week’s prospect development camp at the MSG training facility in Westchester. But general manager Jeff Gorton is also well aware that he can’t run out a team of mostly young, inexperienced players in front of Henrik Lundqvist when the season opens Oct. 4 and think everything is just going to work out fine.

So Gorton was candid about how active he had already been as the free-agent courting period began in earnest Monday, and about how he is still looking to add veteran pieces to make sure next season’s team moves along at the competitive pace needed to aid in the development of all these young prospects. Which is not to say it’s going to be at the full expense of young players getting the opportunity to show what they can do, but that come the opening of free agency Sunday, there will be a goal to add some experience to the locker room.

“That is the expectation, that we are going to provide opportunity for young kids,” Gorton said after the first day of camp Monday. “But we’d like to add a few guys, some character players that can come in and maybe teach these guys the ropes, that have pretty good pedigree and done some good things and come here to help us in certain situations.”

The concept of “character guys” likely means players meant for the bottom-six or third pair, who have been successful even if they have not actually won. After all the headaches the Rangers have gone through the past few months while executing this rebuild, they are not going to undercut it by stunting the growth of their prospects. That means there has to be a balance between giving them opportunity and tossing them unprepared into the deep end.

“Listen, we want young kids to make it and do well, but we won’t put them in a tough spot,” Gorton said. “If they’re not ready, we’re not going to put them in and force them in. We’ll take our time.”

The two biggest pieces of the organization attending this week’s camp are last year’s first-round picks, Lias Andersson (No. 7 overall) and Filip Chytil (No. 21). After each had a small taste of the NHL this past season, they are both expected to not only compete for roster spots come training camp, but earn big-time roles.

“Everyone knows there is free space on the team for a couple young guys,” said Chytil, who looks bigger and stronger and far more comfortable in the environment. “I feel more ready to play in NHL. I think I’m more ready than last year.”

Gorton was also quick to point out his signing of two unheralded European free agents, 22-year-old Finnish winger Ville Meskanen and 23-year-old Swedish winger Michael Lindqvist. Both are in camp and known for their goal-scoring abilities. Then there are the big-prospect pickups acquired during February’s deadline dealings — defensemen Libor Hajek and Ryan Lindgren, and center Brett Howden.

Add in the three first-round picks from last weekend’s draft — winger Vitali Kravtsov (No. 9) and defensemen K’Andre Miller (No. 22) and Nils Lundkvist (No. 28) — and the Rangers prospect pool is pretty well stacked.

“If you go back 12 months and all the pieces we’ve added, the young players we’ve brought in, there’s a lot,” Gorton said. “It suggests that our future is bright and we have a lot of good players. When you talk to other teams around the league and general managers are calling you and talking about how many players you have, it’s good. It makes you feel good about where you’re going.”

So there might be some veterans joining the club shortly, but the focus of the organization is still with the kids on the ice this week — even if they won’t be on the team right away.

“We’ll never stop anybody from doing it if they’re good enough,” Gorton said. “We’ll just let it play out this summer and see how they do.”