Rangers' Drew Fortescue doing all he can to put himself in best position to succeed

GREENBURGH – Prospect Development Camp is supposed to be for prospects, kids with some skills who hope to play for the Rangers someday. They get to work with the coaches for a week, meet the support staff, get a tour of Madison Square Garden, see a little bit of New York City. And they get to dream of the day when they get to pull on the blue jersey and play in front of the home fans.

Drew Fortescue has already done all that. The Pearl River native and Don Bosco Prep product is from here, and he’s already played for the Rangers – suiting up for nine games at the end of last season after finishing his college career at Boston College.

So it seems a little odd for him to be at the Rangers’ practice facility this week, working with all these wide-eyed rookies from across North America and Europe. But the 21-year-old defenseman insisted it’s not weird at all.

“I don't think it's any different,’’ he said Tuesday about coming to prospect camp even after he’s already played in the NHL. “I think you still come here and you're with all the staff and everyone here, and everyone's looking to try and help you get better. And there's always room to improve. And no matter if I played games or not, coming to this camp and being around all these guys, everyone's a good player, so you're gonna get better.’’

The 6-2, 195-pound Fortescue, who averaged just under 15 minutes a game, and finished with two assists and a plus/minus rating of plus-4, is focused on getting better. He said he hopes to use this camp to “kind of just set myself up as best as I can, going forward, going into (training) camp.’’

He is well aware that, despite playing well in his late season audition, he’s not assured of making the Rangers out of training camp. There is a crowd behind No. 1 left defenseman Vladislav Gavrikov battling for roster spots. Even before considering any veteran GM Chris Drury might add in free agency, or via trade, left shot defensemen Matthew Robertson and Urho Vaakanainen return from last season, and first-round draft pick Alberts Smits, the No. 5 overall pick, will presumably be in the competition as well.

Since Fortescue and Smits can be assigned to the minors without going through waivers (Robertson and Vaakanainen can’t), they face a hard challenge to make the team. There’s a good chance, unless he absolutely tears it up in the preseason and forces his way onto the roster, Fortescue could start the season with AHL Hartford.

And there is no assurance he’ll be here a year or two from now, either. The Rangers used five of their nine draft picks last weekend on defensemen, meaning there will be more competition coming in the next couple of years.

“The Rangers are amazing organization that has a great staff that made some great picks,’’ defenseman E.J. Emery, the Rangers’ 2024 first-round pick, said when asked about all the defensemen in the organization all of a sudden.

So Fortescue, who still lives at home with his parents (“I’m gonna stay there as long as I can. No rent,’’ he said), is spending the summer training at Prentiss Hockey in Connecticut, trying to get bigger and stronger, while also trying to improve his skills.

“There's a lot of things I think I need to get better at,’’ he said. “I mean, I’m kind of all over the place. It's getting stronger, all the little puck touches, breakouts, and all the passing, trying to make sure you put the pucks on guys' tape.

“All that stuff is (what) I'm trying to work on this summer to try and get better at… so I can give myself a chance.’’

But hockey isn’t the only thing Fortescue is working on this summer. After the Rangers’ season ended in mid-April, he went back to Boston College to finish up his junior year classes. He’s a business major, with one more year of classes to go to get his bachelor's degree, and he is taking summer classes online, he said, trying to get as many credits as he can before the season starts.

“That's why you go to a school like that, to get an education,’’ he said. “So, even though I left early, it's still something I'm working towards.’’

By Colin Stephenson

colin.stephenson@newsday.comColinSNewsday

Colin Stephenson covers the Rangers for Newsday. He has spent more than two decades covering the NHL and just about every sports team in the New York metropolitan area.