Seizing the moment, while setting the standard.
With another New York Rangers Rookie Camp under way, it presents an abundance of new opportunities for budding players to assert themselves as pros and also is an opportune time to understand what it means to represent the crest on a day-to-day basis.
While this year’s Rookie Camp features a handful of newcomers eager to make the transition from collegiate or junior levels to becoming full-time professional hockey players, there’sre turning players like Matthew Robertson, Karl Henriksson and Bobby Trivigno whose presences are crucial to share firsthand insight on taking the next step.
“It’s important for those guys to show the young guys the way,” said New York Rangers Director of Player Personnel John Lilley. “How to act, how to be a professional. It’s different being in college or junior and then getting into the American Hockey League. It’s about how they conduct themselves. We have a certain standard here of how we want players to act at the rink, on the ice, competing, away from the rink and how they treat people. They can add a lot of leadership in that regard.”
For 22-year-old Robertson, who is entering his third season of professional hockey, he’s grasped an appreciation for fine-tuning the details of his daily habits to establish consistency in his game.
Last season, the blueliner totaled 23 points (5G, 18A) through 57 regular season games with the Hartford Wolf Pack, and in doing so, he doubled his rookie season production of 11 points (1G, 10A) in 65 games. Despite suffering an injury that sidelined him at the end of the season and throughout the entirety of Hartford’s Eastern Conference Division Final loss during the 2023 Calder Cup Playoffs-, Robertson is looking forward to sharing some of his own experiences from his mental and physical preparation with his teammates at Rookie Camp.
“For me, it’s just trying to get better each day,” Robertson said. “Focus on what I can control, coming in, trying to be a good teammate, be positive, and try to help some of the younger guys.”
Having evolved from a newcomer to one of the more senior players present at Rookie Camp, Henriksson noted the importance of approaching every opportunity with an open mind and maintaining the desire to absorb knowledge.
The 22-year-old Swedish forward just completed his first full season of North American hockey with Hartford, where he compiled 17 points (7G, 10A) through 70 games. And the 2019 second rounder (58th overall) is looking to hold himself to his own advice of being eager to learn as he approaches his second season of pro hockey.
“[As a leader, it’s important to] just be yourself and to demand yourself to be focused every time you go onto the ice,” Henriksson said. “Learning every day is our biggest mentality. You should have no regrets doing something you could have done. Every time you're here, you should do everything you can to improve yourself and get to the next level. It's a long season. If you improve every day, you're going to have success later in the season.”
While it’s only Trivigno’s second Rookie Camp, he is, on paper, one of the eldest players in attendance at 24. Having wrapped up his first full professional season in Harford with 26 points (7G, 19A) in 57 games, the winger stressed the importance of team camaraderie and pushing oneself to top physical form.
“It's important for us to be vocal and to be talking to these guys who might be a little more nervous than some of the older guys are,” Trivigno said. “Whether that's in practice or going into games, it's important for us to create that bond and talk to them and just be a friendly face for them to see around the rink and obviously see us competing out there, too. And also, for us to encourage them to work hard.
“One of the other main things is conditioning,” Trivigno continued. “We wanted to make sure that we're very well-conditioned coming into this camp. That's probably one of the biggest things, was making sure we were training hard over the summer to be in really good condition and to be ready to go for all of these drills and skates.”
While Rookie Camp includes a brief stint of two practices before heading to Allentown, Penn., to take on the Philadelphia Flyers’ rookies on Friday and Saturday nights, it’s a pivotal part of the process to becoming a proper professional and maintaining the values of what it means to represent the Rangers organization.
