The New York Rangers take on the Florida Panthers at loanDepot park tonight. Here are the projected/expected lineups sourced from NHL.com staff writers, independent correspondents, and others.
RANGERS (19-18-5) at PANTHERS (21-15-3)
2026 Discover NHL Winter Classic at loanDepot park
8 p.m. ET; HBO MAX, truTV, TNT, SNW, SNO, SNE, TVAS
Rangers projected lineup
Artemi Panarin — Mika Zibanejad — Will Cuylle
Alexis Lafreniere — Vincent Trocheck — Gabe Perreault
Jonny Brodzinski — Justin Dowling — Taylor Raddysh
Brett Berard — Sam Carrick — Matt Rempe
Vladislav Gavrikov — Adam Fox
Carson Soucy — Will Borgen
Matthew Robertson — Braden Schneider
Igor Shesterkin
Jonathan Quick
Scratched: Anton Blidh, Urho Vaakanainen
Injured: J.T. Miller (upper body), Adam Edstrom (lower body), Conor Sheary (lower body), Noah Laba (upper body)
Status report
Berard, Dowling and Blidh, a forward, were recalled from Hartford of the American Hockey League on Thursday. … Sheary, a forward, was placed on long-term injured reserve because of the lower-body injury he sustained in a 6-3 loss to the Washington Capitals on Wednesday. … Laba, a center, is out week to week with the upper-body injury that he also sustained against Washington on Wednesday. … Miller, the Rangers’ captain, skated on Thursday in a red noncontact jersey. It was his first time skating with the team since sustaining his upper-body injury in a 5-4 shootout win against the Philadelphia Flyers on Dec. 20. He will not play on Friday.
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Panthers projected lineup
Eetu Luostarinen — Anton Lundell — Sam Reinhart
Brad Marchand — Sam Bennett — Carter Verhaeghe
Mackie Samoskevich — Evan Rodrigues — A.J. Greer
Jesper Boqvist — Luke Kunin — Jack Studnicka
Gustav Forsling — Aaron Ekblad
Niko Mikkola — Seth Jones
Uvis Balinskis — Jeff Petry
Sergei Bobrovsky
Daniil Tarasov
Scratched: Donavan Sebrango, Noah Gregor
Injured: Aleksander Barkov (knee), Matthew Tkachuk (lower body), Tomas Nosek (knee), Jonah Gadjovich (upper body), Dmitry Kulikov (shoulder), Cole Schwindt (arm)
Status report
Tkachuk, the Panthers forward, skated in a yellow noncontact jersey on Thursday for the third time this week. He is getting closer to playing but will not play on Friday.
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