Training camp by the numbers

Well, training camp starts tomorrow, and the final roster of people invited was released today (it now includes decisions made based on Traverse City, at which the Rangers went 1-2, putting them in the 5th place game, in which they destroyed the Stars' prospects like 7-2). Training camp begins tomorrow, with 61 potential Rangers invited. Over the course of the following weeks, including 6 preseason games from September 23 through October 2 (home-and-homes against the Devils, Red Wings, and Senators), we will cut people from that list of 61 until we are down to a roster of 20 to 23 players. Remember that an NHL roster must contain at least 12 forwards, 6 defensemen, and 2 goalies, and may have up to 3 more players in total (for a maximum roster size of 23). So, we can expect something like 12-14 forwards, 6-8 defensemen, and 2 goalies to make the opening night cut on October 9.

The starting training camp roster of 61 is comprised of 34 forwards, 21 defensemen, and 6 goalies. Since just listing them is boring and not terribly helpful, I've broken them down a little further, into four categories: players I expect to make the team, players I think are on the bubble, players that probably aren't making the team but that we should have at least heard of, and the other guys. Of course this is all subjective, but it should give you a good idea of who to look out for, as cuts start to be made. All of this is subject to change based on how they actually perform at camp: this is not meant to convey any sort of expertise. It's just a convenient way to list people in order of approximately how much we should be paying attention to them. Right, enough disclaimer.

34 Forwards (12-14 will make final cut)
The Core (12): Anisimov, Avery, Boogaard, Boyle, Callahan, Christensen, Drury, Dubinsky, Frolov, Gaborik, Prospal, Prust
The Bubble (6): Fedotenko, Grachev, Kennedy, Stepan, White, Zuccarello
The Guys We Should Have Heard Of (8): Bourque, Byers, Dupont, Horak, Soryal, Weise, Werek, Yogan
The Other Guys (8): Ryan Garlock, Chris McKelvie, Randy McNaught, Kris Newbury, Kelsey Tessier, Christian Thomas, Jeremy Williams, Jason Wilson

21 Defensemen (6-8 will make final cut)
The Core (4): Del Zotto, Girardi, Rozsival, Staal
The Bubble (5): Eminger, Exelby, Gilroy, McDonagh, Semenov
The The Guys We Should Have Heard Of (7): Klassen, Kundratek, McIlrath, Niemi, Redden, Sauer, Valentenko
The Other Guys (5): Lee Baldwin, Dan Maggio, Brandon Manning, Blake Parlett, Nigel Williams

6 Goalies (2 will make final cut)
The Core (2): Biron, Lundqvist
The Guys We Should Have Heard Of (3): Johnson, Parise, Stajcer
The Other Guy (1): Cam Talbot

Again, this is just a bullshit classification I threw out there. The only thing I'd put money on is that I know who our two roster goalies are. Of note, some people are talking about Weise, Kundratek, and Niemi having shots at the squad as well, while others are talking about Avery's and Boyle's jobs being in danger, and some people even still think Redden might be on the roster on opening night. It's all up in the air.

Regardless, there are your 61 guys who show up to camp tomorrow. No more than 23 of them will still be around 22 days later, when the regular season (finally, fucking finally) begins. Here we go...