A Chris Kreider
(AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)

New York Rangers president John Davidson expects veteran Chris Kreider to be at the teams training camp in September.

The New York Rangers have been very quiet since the announcement of Kevin Shattenkirk’s buyout last week. That is until late Thursday night.

Dan Rosen of NHL.com came out with a story that gave Kreider and his teammates a better idea of what is ahead for the squad as the preseason approaches.

“I totally expect him to be in camp,” Rangers president John Davidson, via Rosen. “It’s hard to make promises. Things change, but Chris is a valued member of the New York Rangers and I look forward to him having a great camp and a great run with us.

“He’s got one year left, and that should be a whole lot of importance to him to come in and have a great camp and a great year, and we’ll just see where it all goes.”

The strong statement from JD answered the main question hovering over the team. Right now, the club has every intention of not trading the left-winger; instead, they will play the wait-and-see game.

Kreider, 28, will be an unrestricted free agent at season’s end. He is coming off a career-year, recording 28 goals with 52 points.

He is scheduled to make $4.625 million this season as the club struggles to stay below the $81.5 million dollar salary cap. Until the team completed Shatty’s buyout, the team was almost $5 million above the salary-cap ceiling.

The team has yet to sign restricted free agents Brendan Lemieux and Anthony DeAngelo.

JD and company have appeared to have difficulty completed a trade to free up cap space, hence the continued rumors of trading Kreider to ease the salary situation.

The question of what the team will do with Kreider long term is still up in the air.

“We’ll deal with that,” Rangers general manager Jeff Gorton said. “We’ll continue to talk to Chris and see what’s next for him, but we’ll start with training camp, get him going on the right path, hopefully, he’s helping us win games, and then we’ll figure it out.”

For now, anticipate seeing Kreider at the start of training camp and participating in preseason games.

The seven-year veteran has only worn a Rangers jersey in his career. Now, he and the organization hope they can work out a deal to re-sign him prior to the trade deadline in February.

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A graduate of St. John's University class of '91. I have been a fan of the New York Rangers since the days of Peter Puck. Founder of Ranger Proud, the Facebook page that covers all news, notes, pre /post-game stats, and player quotes. I can be reached at [email protected]