In the last two seasons, the 26-year-old played 33 NHL games with the Rangers, scoring two goals and three assists for five points. Gilmour has liked his camp so far, “Pretty happy, I’m still taking it day-by-day and I’m trying to showcase what I can do which is skating and making good puck decisions.”
Gilmour has been very noticeable in the games, and Ralph Krueger has liked what he’s seen, “He’s another player that’s on an upward curve, continuously showing more confidence and comfort in being here and we thought he showed us a very strong game yesterday.”
Gilmour was a depth player for the Rangers, but now he thinks he’s ready to graduate to the NHL full-time, “That’s my goal, and that’s what I’ve been working towards my whole life, so I’ve put in that work, so that’s exactly what I plan to do.”
Gilmour has shown us he can skate and shoot the puck, but that isn’t where he sees the most improvement in his game, “For me, it’s the defensive zone. Being a smaller type defenseman, just knowing when to use my feet and when to use my stick and how to close gaps in the D zone.”
Of course, Rasmus Dahlin and Jake McCabe are shoo-ins on the left defense, but with Marco Scandella struggling, Gilmour could sneak in under the radar.
Krueger put the team through a grueling hour-and-20-minute practice on Thursday followed by off-ice training. My guess is this is what you’ll see for lines Saturday in Pittsburgh:
Wilson - Rodrigues - Okposo
Vesey - Mittelstadt - Sheary
Elie - Asplund - Thompson
Girgensons - Larsson - Lazar
The other two lines were:
Olofsson - Eichel - Reinhart
Skinner - Johansson - Sobotka
Gilmour - Borgen
Jokiharju - Nelson
Scandella - Miller
Dahlin - Ristolainen