Rangers Abruptly Terminate Contract of 25-Year-Old Defenseman

The New York Rangers put defenseman Matthew Robertson on waivers Monday, a roster decision that arrived before the second week of the season and turned a former second-round pick into the odd man out.

Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reported the move. Earlier in the day, Vince Mercogliano had already noted that Robertson was held out of practice for what the club described as roster management. The timing was not accidental.

On Sunday night against the Utah Mammoth, center Joe Veleno left with a lower-body injury after a collision with the boards and will not play Tuesday against the Islanders.

New York is at the 23-man limit, with roughly $462,000 in cap space, so clearing a defenseman is the practical way to recall a forward. Robertson’s $850,000 salary, if he clears or is claimed, would open both a roster spot and enough room to bring up a center from Hartford.

Robertson is 25 and still tied to the organization that took him 49th overall in 2019.

He did not turn professional until 2021-22 and spent the better part of four seasons as a two-way defenseman for the Wolf Pack. In 2024-25, his last full year in the AHL, he had a goal and 25 points in 60 games.

Last season was the breakthrough: a full rookie campaign of six goals and 18 points in 72 games, a minus-1 rating, and 17:24 of ice time a night.

He blocked 80 shots and delivered 107 hits, the sort of third-pair volume that keeps a young defender in the lineup even when the underlying numbers are ordinary.

At even strength, he finished at 48.6 percent Corsi and a 90.6 percent on-ice save percentage, numbers that suggested the physical game arrived before the territorial one.

He has not dressed this season. The left side is crowded with Vladislav Gavrikov, Marcus Pettersson, and Alberts Smits, and Drew Fortescue can be sent down without waivers. Scott Morrow remains the extra defenseman.

Carrying eight blue-liners was never going to last once a forward went down, and Robertson was the player the Rangers chose to expose.

The contract math is part of the story. He is on track to become a Group VI unrestricted free agent after this season, but six more NHL games would push him to restricted free agency instead.

A claiming team would inherit that leverage as well as a defender who has already shown he can play a regular shift. If he clears, Hartford gets a familiar piece back and New York keeps the right to recall him.

Either outcome ends a brief stretch in which Robertson looked settled on an NHL roster and returns him, at least for a day, to the uncertainty that defined most of his professional career.