The 2024-25 season is one month away from starting and teams are preparing for training camp with the hope of a successful season. Some teams, like the New York Rangers, won’t be satisfied unless they are lifting the Stanley Cup sometime in June. In order for that to happen, the players on their talented roster will have to come through with productive seasons. That includes players like Matt Rempe, who figures to fill a spot on the team’s fourth line.
Rempe played in 17 regular-season games and several playoff games last year for the Broadway Blueshirts, and he does not figure to be one of head coach Peter Laviolette’s leading scorers. Instead, the 6-9 Rempe is expected to provide the team with size, strength and a player who can intimidate the opposition.
Rempe doesn’t mind taking on the duties of a player who can provide punishing hits on a regular basis. But he wants to be more than someone who can fight and throw big hits. He wants to contribute to the team in any way the Rangers need him to add to the team.
If it means carrying the puck, he will do that. If it means taking a shot on goal or delivering an accuarate pass, he wants to do that as well. However, he knows that his main job is protecting his teammates and becoming the team’s enforcer.
He has received encouragement from players like Georges Laraque who manned that role during his NHL career.
Rempe is open to advice to improve his fighting
When a player like Laraque invited him to his camp in Edmonton to learn more about pugilistic technique while on ice, Rempe was happy to attend.
“Those are guys are who I consider legends in the craft and they’re all reaching out and loving what I’m doing. They want to give me advice,” Rempe said, per Greg Wyshinski of ESPN. “I want to learn as much as I can. Taking all of their information. They have much experience. They fought so much more back in the day.”
Rempe knows that his ability to protect and defend his teammates is a big part of his job, but so is improving as a hockey player. He has spent quite a bit of his summer working on his skating, learning how to forecheck properly and also the finer points of protecting the puck.
He spent time with Rangers forward Chris Kreider, who excels at all three of those aspects of the game. The bottom line is that Rempe wants to be a complete hockey player.
Rempe looks like the right winger on the fourth line with center Sam Carrick and Jimmy Vesey. If he improves in all areas this season, he may be able to stay in that position for 82 regular season games or possibly move up in the team’s pecking order.
