We are now just over one week away from the Kitchener Rangers’ first preseason game on Aug. 29 against the Brantford Bulldogs. With the Ontario Hockey League’s (OHL) 2025-26 season quietly sneaking up, the Rangers’ training camp will be getting underway in the next week or two to prepare for the season and make final decisions on their roster heading into the regular season.
Heading into camp, the Rangers have eight players signed for the 2025-26 season. Three forwards, two defensemen, and two goalies. Let’s look at these players and evaluate what they have going into camp, and try to get a picture of what types of players they will be looking for during camp.
Let’s start with the goaltenders, probably the position Rangers’ fans are most concerned with, as Jackson Parsons makes his transition to the American Hockey League after winning the OHL and Canadian Hockey League’s (CHL) Goaltender of the Year awards.
Jason Schaubel (G)
The Rangers drafted Jason Schaubel in the fifth round of the 2024 OHL Priority Selection draft after an outstanding season at the under-16 AAA level. After being drafted, Schaubel made the Rangers in his first season with the team and backed up Parsons, getting into 18 games.
On paper, Schaubel’s stats were not the prettiest last season with a 3.40 goals-against average (GAA) and a .878 save percentage (SV%). However, the numbers don’t tell the story of Schaubel’s rookie season. Despite these numbers, he posted a 10-3-3 record and helped the Rangers earn points in 81.25% of the games he had a decision in. While Schaubel didn’t steal many games, he made plenty of timely saves and consistently gave the Rangers chances to win games, and that’s all you can ask from your rookie backup goaltender.
This strong rookie season led to Schaubel getting a spot on Team Canada’s Hlinka-Gretzky Cup roster, a tournament for under-18 players. Schaubel was the third goalie on Canada’s roster for the entirety of the tournament. This will have him in a great position to take on a larger role in the Rangers’ crease in 2025-26.
Christian Kirsch (G)
Christian Kirsch will be playing in the OHL for the first time this season after the Rangers used their first pick in the CHL’s 2025 Import Draft to draft and sign the 6-foot-4 Swiss netminder. However, this was not the first time he had been drafted, as the San Jose Sharks selected Kirsch in the fourth round of the 2024 NHL Entry Draft.
In 2024-25, Kirsch spent most of his time with the Janesville Jets in the North American Hockey League (NAHL), where he played 24 games and had a .912 SV% while playing for one of the worst teams in the league. He has also played with Switzerland’s national team since 2021-22 at the under-16 level and most recently at the under-20 level in 2024-25.
Kirsch has the build of a professional goalie; he is the oldest and largest goalie the Rangers have, and will likely be the favourite to start the regular season as the Rangers’ starting goalie. However, this could be his only season with the team as he is committed to the University of Massachusetts for 2026-27.
With Kirsch and Schaubel, the Rangers appear to have another strong goaltending tandem heading into the 2025-26 season. During camp, they may find a standout. However, it is more than likely they are looking for a talented kid who can act as their third goalie in emergencies.
With the guys stopping goals out of the way, let’s shift to the guys who will be scoring them.
Jack Pridham (F)
Earlier this summer, the Chicago Blackhawks‘ third-round pick from the 2024 NHL Entry Draft, Jack Pridham, announced that he would not be going to Boston College for the 2025-26 season and instead would choose to return to the Rangers.
Pridham will likely attend Blackhawks training camp, and with his entry-level contract still unsigned, it is unlikely he will make their roster. However, of the four NHL prospects the Rangers have signed, Pridham has the best chance of cracking their respective NHL roster.
In 2024-25, the Rangers got Pridham to sign after he played 12 games with the West Kelowna Warriors in the British Columbia Hockey League, a tier two junior A league. In 48 regular-season games, Pridham scored 27 goals and totaled 54 points, then added 13 more points in the Rangers’ 16-game playoff run.
While he has a chance of making the Blackhawks, it is more than likely he returns to the Rangers and plays top-line minutes for this team, and will be one of their most impactful players.
Christian Humphreys (F)
Christian Humphreys is another one of the Rangers’ NHL draft picks. The Colorado Avalanche selected him in the seventh round of the 2024 Entry Draft. After being drafted, he started the 2024-25 season with Michigan State playing Division I hockey. After 10 games and struggling to find a spot with the Spartans, Humphreys signed with the Rangers and finished the season in the OHL.
Related: Avalanche Prospect Christian Humphreys Talks NTDP, NCAA & OHL
With the Rangers, Humphreys scored 11 goals and put up 33 points in 28 games in the regular season. He also had a strong playoff run, tallying 10 points in 13 games.
Following the season and seeing plenty of talented players from the CHL committing to play NCAA hockey in 2025-26, there was reason to believe Humphreys, the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania native, would be inclined to head back to the United States, but he has announced that he will return to the Rangers. Humphreys will play a significant role this season, with Rangers general manager Mike Mackenzie saying, “A top centre and a top-six forward are hard to replace. He has fit in really well and loves it here. It’s a big piece for us.”
Lucas Ellinas (F)
Lucas Ellinas will be going into his third season with the Rangers. In his rookie OHL season, he scored 16 goals and totaled 33 points in 67 games. In his sophomore season, he improved that to 20 goals and 37 points in 50 games.
While those numbers aren’t eye-popping, it is in the most significant moments in the playoffs that he has shone. In the Rangers’ 2023-24 playoff run, Ellinas put up eight points in 10 games and followed that up with 16 points in 14 games in the 2024-25 playoffs. This led him to be the Rangers’ best playoff performer in back-to-back seasons.
The Ottawa Senators drafted Ellinas in the fourth round of the 2024 NHL Entry Draft, and he signed his entry-level deal with the team earlier this summer, so there is a slight chance he could play in the NHL this season. However, it is more than likely that he returns to the Rangers and takes on a larger leadership role after winning the Jim McGeachie Memorial Trophy for the Rangers, which is awarded to a player who exhibits competitiveness and dedication to the game and his team.
The Rangers were supposed to have one more forward joining them for this season. However, Adam Valentini, whom the Rangers acquired last fall, informed the team he would opt to go to the University of Michigan a year earlier than expected. The Rangers have a solid core of forwards. However, they have plenty of questions to answer up front before the end of training camp.
Jakub Chromiak (D)
Jakub Chromiak will be going into his third OHL season, his second full season with the Rangers. He played his rookie season with the Sudbury Wolves and was then acquired by the Kingston Frontenacs just seven games into the 2023-24 season. Following that season, the Rangers acquired his rights to bolster their depth on the blue line, and in 2024-25, he did just that, scoring four goals, totalling 32 points, and finishing as a plus-14.
Outside of the OHL, Chromiak has played with Slovakia’s national team since 2021-22 at the under-18 level through the under-20 World Junior Championship in 2025.
For the Rangers in 2025-26, Chromiak will likely play a significant amount of minutes and be more than the depth addition that they acquired him to be last season. He is a fun player to watch. He is an excellent puck mover who can provide offense from the blue line and is also a fantastic skater, which allows him to jump up in the rush and get back into defensive position quickly if the play goes the other way. Look for him to play significant minutes this season for the blue and white.
Jacob Xu (D)
The Rangers selected Jacob Xu with their eighth-round pick in the 2024 OHL Priority Selection. Through the 2024-25 season, he split most of his time playing with the King Rebellion and Trenton Golden Hawks in the Ontario Junior Hockey League (OJHL), a tier two junior A league. In the OJHL, he had 24 points in 51 games. However, he also played in eight games with the Rangers as a call-up and got a feel for the speed of the OHL game before playing another 13 throughout the Rangers’ playoff run.
Recently, Mackenzie spoke with the CHL about Xu and said, “We expect him to hit the ground running and have very little time adjusting to the league full-time. He is a big, mobile and can play a physical brand of hockey but also has a calm and poised presence on the ice.”
The more Xu played for the Rangers last season, the larger his role got. With him coming back knowing the speed of the game and having the playoff experience he got last season, expect him to play a massive role on the Rangers’ blue line before going off to Harvard University for the 2026-27 season.
Rangers 2025-26 Outlook
Despite the Rangers losing out on Valentini, who was likely going to be an impact player in the OHL, they have a strong foundation heading into their 2025-26 season. They have a few talented forwards who will make massive impacts on the stat sheet this season, they have two defensemen capable of playing in the top four, and a seemingly excellent goaltending tandem despite losing Parsons, last season’s OHL Goalie of the Year.
At camp, the Rangers will be looking for just about everything, but maybe top-line forwards and goaltenders. However, in a recent interview, Mackenzie said, “We have a large group of returning players but also have some fresh faces that we feel can make an impact for us in their first full year in the league. The reality of the OHL is you have to constantly have new players stepping in every year and we feel this is an exciting crop of new players that can help us win hockey games and our fans will enjoy watching” (via CHL.ca), which shows he has little concern with being able to fill out a competitive roster.
It will be interesting to see how the Rangers continue building their team, in hopes of winning the bid to host the 2027 Memorial Cup.
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