Over the first month of the 2026-27 season, 10 players made their New York Rangers debut, and that doesn’t even include goalie Joonas Korpisalo, who dressed as a backup for one game before being sidelined with a foot infection.

Another offseason acquisition, center Joe Veleno, appeared in only four games before a lower-body injury knocked him out of the lineup. Veleno’s absence is expected to be between three and four months.

His injury opened the door for rookie Cole Beaudoin and veteran Luke Glendening to make their Rangers debuts. Just as Korpisalo being sidelined paved the way for 38-year-old goalie James Reimer to play his first game with the Rangers, the ninth team he’s tended goal for.

It’d be unfair to hand out grades at this juncture to Korpisalo, Veleno (four games), Glendening (two), Beaudoin (four), and Reimer (one) since there’s too small a sample size to evaluate each. Or in the case of Korpisalo, no sample size at all.

So as we look at the first month of the season, let’s focus on grading six newcomers, who each played all 14 games to this point.

Oliver Bjorkstrand: Grade B

Oliver Bjorkstrand has done more with his limited opportunities than other Rangers have with far bigger roles in the lineup. The 31-year-old forward is second on the Rangers with five goals, as well as an expected goal share 5v5 of 56.84 percent, per Natural Stat Trick, despite 15 teammates logging more ice time. He’s been deployed just as often on the fourth line as he has in the top-nine forward group and has just about equal starts in the defensive zone (20) as the offensive one (21). Bjorkstrand is a bit streaky with a pair of two-goal games in his first 14 outings, but he’s a dangerous shoot-first wing that’s earned a bigger opportunity.

Pavel Dorofeyev: Grade C-

Speaking of shoot-first forwards, Pavel Dorofeyev leads the Rangers with 42 shots on goal. He’s also clanged iron numerous times, especially of late. The rub, though, is that the 26-year-old sniper who scored 72 goals combined the past two seasons with the Vegas Golden Knights has just three in 14 games with the Rangers. That’s two at even strength and one on the power play, where he scored 20 times last season, second most in the League. His expected goal share 5v5 is 53.33 percent, but the Rangers are outscored 13-7 with him on the ice, and he has a ghastly team-worst minus-13 plus/minus mark. Coach Mike Sullivan has briefly benched Dorofeyev or demoted him to the third line during games due to his defensive lapses. All will be forgiven, of course, if Dorofeyev finally gets on one of his elite hot scoring streaks sooner rather than later,

Sean Durzi: Grade B-

There’s no question that the Rangers second defense pair with Sean Durzi and Marcus Pettersson is better than what the team deployed a year ago. That said, it’s been far from perfect, too. Though Sullivan recently went to great lengths explaining how Durzi and Pettersson play hard minutes against top forwards and that skews underlying metrics, those analytics do paint part of the picture. Right now Durzi is at a career-worst 45.28 percent xGF and the Rangers are outscored 8-6 with him on the ice 5v5. Durzi’s on pace to record 30 points over 84 games, less than expected, though he’s also played a bunch of games hampered with an unspecified injury. He’s a gamer and terrific teammate, but his two-way game needs to be more consistent.

Marcus Pettersson: Grade B-

Not surprisingly, Pettersson’s underlying metrics 5v5 are similar to Durzi’s since they spent the vast majority of their time as partners. Like Durzi, Pettersson’s been very good on the penalty kill, but his expected goal share 5v5 sits at 45.38 percent. Never a threat to produce much offensively, Pettersson has just two assists in 14 games. He is largely responsible, though, and is second among Rangers defensemen with 20 hits, as well, and third in average ice time per game (20:46).

Alberts Smits: Grade C

Some may not like this, but Alberts Smits gets graded on a bit of a curve here since he’s an 18-year-old rookie. It hasn’t always been pretty over his first 14 NHL games, plus the kid’s still looking for his first NHL point, but Smits looks confident, shows mental toughness — as well as the physical kind — and an ability to not let bad things snowball. For the most part. He’s a definite work in progress, but it’s easy to see down the road that the No. 5 overall pick in this year’s draft is going to be a really important player for the Rangers, a cornerstone piece for the future. But now there are growing pains, including a 41.16 percent xGF, only six recorded shots on goal, and some poor decision making against the best players in the world.

Eeli Tolvanen: Grade C+

Eeli Tolvanen is a hard-working bottom-six fixture, who’s also an excellent penalty killer. In short, he’s well worth the minimal one-year, $1.5 million investment the Rangers made in the 27-year-old near the end of the offseason. Tolvanen is first among Rangers forwards with 13 blocked shots, leads them with a plus-5 rating, and averages 6.48 hits per 60 minutes. But the issue here is that he’s done little offensively, totaling three goals and one assist. Two of those goals are empty-netters, and he’s managed only 15 shots on goal, averaging just 12:34 TOI. He scored 23 goals with the Seattle Kraken two years ago but gets no power-play run and is stuck on the third and fourth lines, giving him little chance to produce more. He’s without a point in seven straight games and hasn’t scored a goal in his past 10 games.