Rangers clear path for Greentree, prospects to expand roles in Hartford

The Rangers are clearing real room for Liam Greentree and a younger forward group in Hartford, giving Brody Lamb, Dylan Roobroeck, Aidan Thompson, Carey Terrance and others a better path to bigger minutes. Greentree arrives with pedigree too, having been selected 26th overall by the Los Angeles Kings in the 2024 NHL Draft before the Rangers acquired him in a trade announced four months ago.

That opening is coming at a time when Hartford badly needs a reset. The Wolf Pack finished the 2025-26 American Hockey League season last with 60 points and a minus-63 goal differential, then missed the Calder Cup Playoffs for a second straight year. Those results pushed a coaching change, with the Rangers hiring Jay Leach to run Hartford after firing Grant Potulny in early May 2026.

Potulny had been hired on June 27, 2024, after seven seasons as head coach at Northern Michigan University, but the organization changed course after back-to-back playoff misses. Leach now inherits a roster that already tilts young up front, with Hartford listing Thompson, Terrance, Sullivan Mack, Juuso Pärssinen, Bryce McConnell-Barker, Brendan Brisson, Anton Blidh, Kalle Väisänen, Brody Lamb, Dylan Roobroeck, Justin Dowling, Caige Sterzer and Trey Fix-Wolansky among its forwards.

That forward mix gives Hartford a chance to build a different kind of attack. Lamb, Roobroeck, Thompson and Terrance are the names most likely to benefit if the Rangers keep the lane open for prospects to grow into larger roles, while Greentree adds another high-end scoring candidate to the pipeline. If those players hit, Hartford can lean less on patchwork depth and more on controlled youth, skill and pace.

The blue line is still the more established part of the roster. Hartford lists Casey Fitzgerald, Chris Ortiz, Connor Mackey, Blake Hillman, Jackson Dorrington, Scott Morrow and Brandon Scanlin on defense, preserving veteran stability while the club works through the rest of its offseason construction. In goal, Hugo Ollas and Spencer Martin are already on the roster page, and Dylan Garand signed a two-year contract extension on June 21, 2026, giving the organization another layer of stability in net.

The Wolf Pack’s current roster page still shows the team is not finished building, and that matters for New York’s development plan. With Greentree, Aspinall, Lamb and Battaglia all positioned for more meaningful AHL opportunity, Hartford is shaping into the next stop where the Rangers can test whether their younger forwards can turn promise into production.