Matt Rempe in midst of fourth-line battle with Rangers

As the New York Rangers‘ prepare to begin training camp for the 2024-25 season, the majority of the roster is already pretty much in place. However, there are one or two spots up for grabs. Players like Matt Rempe will need to show that they’ve put in the work over the summer and prove they can secure a spot on the opening night roster.

While no spot is guaranteed, coach Peter Laviolette recognizes just how impactful Rempe was on last season’s squad, as well as the work he’s put in during the offseason.

“He put in a lot of work this summer. He had a big impact on our team last year,” Laviolette explained at a press conference this week. “He’s a young kid coming to training camp. Lots of people are trying to find more inside of their game, but this is a young player who works tirelessly at his craft to become a more physical presence, skating, stickhandling, game involvement — he worked at it hard.

“That’s what you love to see, and you look to see those improvements come in camp now.”

Matt Rempe enters Rangers camp after offseason full of improvement

While players like Brennan Othmann will battle for a spot among the top-nine forwards, the Rangers have a slew of players competing for a role on the fourth line. Among them are Rempe, Adam Edstrom, Jimmy Vesey, Sam Carrick and Jonny Brodzinski.

Though Rempe had a tremendous impact on the team after his late-season callup, don’t count out someone like Edstrom, who had a very good rookie camp, including scoring three goals in two games against the Philadelphia Flyers rookies.

Rempe was busy this offseason, to say the least. Living with Jonathan Quick and training with Chris Kreider was likely an incredibly valuable experience for the 22-year-old forward — not only from a training standpoint, but because of the experience Quick and Kreider have. Rempe probably learned a great deal about what it takes to be a successful NHL player, and it’s more than just throwing around his 6-foot-8 frame.

That doesn’t mean he’ll be keeping the gloves on all season. Rempe even trained with long-time NHL enforcer Georges Laraque in the offseason — so maybe we’ll see some more technicality in his fighting game, rather than just throwing haymakers during fights.

If Rempe wants to have a bigger role, he’ll need to prove to Laviolette and the rest of the Rangers staff that the non-fighting aspects of his game have improved. He’s not going to help the team by playing five minutes each night. In fact, his average career ice time is just 5:37. Rempe scored one goal and had one assist while piling up 71 penalty minutes in 17 regular-season games. He scored one goal in 11 playoff games for the Rangers with 10 PIMs.

Looking for someone who can “knock down a door"

Laviolette said Matt Rempe will get an opportunity but isn’t guaranteed a roster spot.

“I think there’s always room inside of a training camp,” Laviolette said. “It’s an opportunity. The message from today: This is training camp. There is always an opportunity for you to jump out of your shoes, knock us in the head, and say, ‘I am here. I have arrived’. From there, it makes us look at everything, the entire situation.

“I think those are good things to have inside of an organization, people that are ready to knock down a door and make some noise.”