The Rangers’ preseason schedule will include a visit with Torts and to Vegas, Baby. Vegas.
 
The Blueshirts are expected to open their regular season on the road for the third straight season due to the final phase of renovations at the Garden. So the preseason schedule they announced on Tuesday includes five road games, including a visit to Vancouver to face ex-coach John Tortorella, and a neutral-site showdown with the L.A. Kings in Las Vegas.
 
The Rangers will open training camp on Sept. 11, a Wednesday, and open their preseason with a back-to-back Sept. 16 and 17 against the Devils in Newark and the Flyers in Philadelphia.
 
They then will travel for a three-game trip in western Canada, at the Calgary Flames on Sept. 23, at the Edmonton Oilers on Sept. 24, and then at the Canucks on Sept. 26.
 
The visit to Vancouver will mark Rangers coach Alain Vigneault’s first return to coach his former team since being fired after seven seasons this spring.
 
The Blueshirts then will wrap up their preseason schedule the following night, Sept. 27, against the 2012 Cup champion Kings in Vegas.
 
2013 RANGERS PRESEASON SCHEDULE
Monday, Sept. 16: Rangers @ New Jersey Devils, 7 p.m.
Tuesday, Sept. 17: Rangers @ Philadelphia Flyers, 7 p.m.
Monday, Sept. 23: Rangers @ Calgary Flames, TBD
Tuesday, Sept. 24: Rangers @ Edmonton Oilers, 9:30 p.m.
Thursday, Sept. 26: Rangers @ Vancouver Canucks, 10 p.m.
Friday, Sept. 27: Rangers @ Los Angeles Kings in Las Vegas, 10 p.m.
 
Have a question about the Blueshirts or a comment? Find Pat on Twitter at @NYDNRangers.

Here are a few extra notes on and quotes from Rangers defenseman Ryan McDonagh, who re-signed to a six-year, $28.2 million contract on Monday morning:
 
- McDonagh signed the papers in his agent’s Minneapolis office to make him a multi-millionaire. Then, to celebrate, he left to work out at a local gym.
 
- July 2013 undoubtedly will be a month for McDonagh to remember: He is marrying his fiancée, Kaylee, on July 19 after successfully renewing his vows with the Rangers.
 
- Rangers GM Glen Sather flirted with disaster by not signing him sooner, leaving him vulnerable to an offer sheet from another club. But the Rangers finally locked him up, avoiding both undesirable potential scenarios of either losing McDonagh to another team or having to match a pricier offer sheet that could have compromised the Blueshirts’ remaining salary cap space even further.
 
- Sather has about $7 million at the moment to re-sign forwards Derek Stepan, Carl Hagelin and Mats Zuccarello. I was told Monday that Zuccarello wants to stay with the Rangers and is confident he and the team will be able to make something work. Stepan, 23, McDonagh’s former University of Wisconsin teammate and a groomsman in his upcoming wedding, should be the next to sign:
 
“You guys will be calling him next here very soon, I assume,” McDonagh half-joked on Monday.
 

The Rangers placed veteran forwards Arron Asham and Darroll Powe on waivers Thursday, hoping to free about $2 million of salary cap space for the open of free agency on Friday at noon.

If Asham and Powe are claimed by another team, the Blueshirts would have about $15 million to re-sign restricted free agents Ryan McDonagh, Derek Stepan, Carl Hagelin and Mats Zuccarello, and to test the free-agent waters.

If Asham and Powe depart – and assuming Stepan, Hagelin and Zuccarello all re-sign – the Rangers would have just 12 forwards on the roster going into free agency (FYI, Ranger fans, Capgeek.com isn’t including J.T. Miller on the Rangers NHL roster at the moment, but I am, and you should, too.)
 
Assuming both players are claimed, both Powe and Asham only spent this past season with the Rangers.
 
Powe, 28, came over in a Feb. 4 trade from the Minnesota Wild to add forward depth, particularly on the penalty kill. He had no points in 34 games as mostly a fourth-line center and winger, then played only three playoff games due to a concussion suffered in the first round against Washington.
 
Powe has one year at $1,066,667 remaining on his contract.
 
Asham, 35, signed a two-year deal as a free agent last July. He battled injury but had two goals in 27 games, fairly regularly providing an effective, physical forecheck on the fourth-line wing. Then, he scored two goals in 10 playoff games but was mysteriously scratched in the final two games of the second round, one of many reasons John Tortorella lost his job after the Rangers were eliminated.
 
Asham has one year at $1 million remaining on his deal.
 
Have a question about the Blueshirts or a comment? Find Pat on Twitter at @NYDNRangers.

Glen Sather elected to keep Brad Richards for at least one more season because he believes the veteran center will “be much better next year.”
 
The Rangers general manager said Wednesday morning at the team’s Greenburgh training facility that “probably the deciding factor” behind not using a compliance buyout on Richards was that: “He’s a really good player. I think he had an off-year, and we think he’ll be much better next year.”
 
Sather and the Rangers, however, almost have no choice but to buy out Richards’ contract following the 2013-14 season because of cap recapture penalties if Richards retires before his deal expires. That explains that when asked whether the end of Richards’ contract didn’t deter Sather, he said: “No. Not right now.”
 
Richards has seven years at an annual cap hit of $6.67 million. The Rangers’ decision to keep him severely limits their ability to upgrade their team in free agency.
 
Sather, however, indicated that while he sees “some options” in free agency, which opens on Friday, the Rangers’ plans include giving their promising young players a chance to contribute now.
 
“We have lots of good young kids coming,” Sather said. “I don’t want to shut the door on them.”
 
Sather also said of newly acquired forward Danny Kristo from Montreal: “He was a good college player. He played good on the U.S. teams. He’s got speed, and he’s got some bite to him.”