The New York Rangers are setting their 23-man roster for the 2026-27 NHL season. As expected, Dylan Garand will start the campaign in the AHL rather than the goaltending room in Manhattan. Fortunately for the Rangers, Chris Drury’s gamble paid off as Garand went through waivers unclaimed.
“The Rangers successfully get Dylan Garand through waivers, as they were hoping,” as reported by The Athletic’s Peter Baugh on X. “He will start the year as AHL Hartford’s No. 1.”
Placing Garand on waivers was a brazen move on Drury and the Rangers’ front office’s part. Still, there was no other way around it for New York as it planned to roll with the tandem of Igor Shesterkin and Joonas Korpisalo to start the 2026-27 NHL season.
Garand couldn’t avoid waivers
Although Garand is signed to a two-way contract, that doesn’t mean he isn’t exempt from waivers. If the Rangers wanted to send him down to the minors, he had to clear waivers first. That hurdle has been cleared, and the 24-year-old is headed to the AHL affiliate, the Hartford Wolf Pack.
Chris Drury of the New York Rangers.
In the end, the risky rolling of the dice paid off, or at least, Drury and company walked away unscathed. Had New York lost its young, promising goaltender to waivers, it would’ve been a tough note to start the 2026-27 NHL season on. And one that could’ve pitted the fans in Manhattan against the organization right from the get-go.
Garand has to prove himself
As encouraging as his first career starts in the NHL were, Garand still has much to prove to the Rangers, and that’s why he will start the year in Hartford, while Shesterkin continues to run the show in Manhattan and recently acquired Korpisalo serves as his backup.
Drafted in the fourth round of the 2020 NHL Draft, Garand has played just three games in his career so far. He’s put up a .948 save percentage and allowed an average of 1.62 goals in his three appearances.
The sample size is indeed small, virtually minuscule for the Rangers to hand him an active-roster spot right away, but his numbers are encouraging, and all signs indicate he will be called up at some point during the 2026-27 season.
Key takeaways
- Dylan Garand cleared NHL waivers and was assigned to the AHL’s Hartford Wolf Pack.
- New York will start the season with a goaltending tandem of Igor Shesterkin and Joonas Korpisalo.
- The 24-year-old netminder holds a .948 save percentage and a 1.62 GAA across three career NHL starts.
