The New York Rangers placed defenseman Vincent Iorio on waivers Tuesday, a final roster move that arrived hours before the club opened the 2026-27 season on the road against the Boston Bruins.
The 23-year-old right-shot defenseman had been placed on injured reserve Monday with a lower-body injury. That designation kept him off the 23-man roster that will take the ice at TD Garden.
CBS Sports’ RotoWire staff summarized the sequence this way: “Iorio was placed on injured reserve by the Rangers on Monday before he ultimately ended up on waivers Tuesday. The 23-year-old blueliner had a shot to make the NHL roster after appearing in six regular-season games for the Rangers in 2025-26. If he clears waivers over the next 24 hours, he will report to AHL Hartford, where he could play a sizable role to begin the 2026-27 campaign.”
Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman first reported the waiver placement.
Iorio is 6-foot-4 and 220 pounds. Washington selected him 55th overall in the 2021 NHL Draft out of the Western Hockey League’s Brandon Wheat Kings.
He has appeared in 36 regular season NHL games across three organizations and has four assists, no goals and a minus-3 rating. He also dressed for one playoff game with the Capitals in 2024.
Last season he played 27 NHL games and recorded three assists. Twenty-one of those games came with San Jose, where he averaged 16 minutes, 30 seconds of ice time. The Rangers claimed him off waivers from the Sharks on Jan. 31, and he finished the year with six games in New York, averaging 13:05 and posting no points.
The Capitals had waived him in October 2025. San Jose claimed him then, used him for 21 games, and put him back on waivers in late January. New York was the second club in four months to take him off the wire.
His minor-league record is more extensive. Iorio has 196 regular-season AHL games, 11 goals and 52 assists. He won Calder Cups with Hershey in 2023 and 2024 and later produced seven assists in a six-game conditioning stint with the San Jose Barracuda last fall.
The Rangers re-signed him Aug. 21 to a one-year, two-way contract. The deal carries an $850,000 NHL cap hit and a $125,000 AHL salary.
New York’s opening-night blue line is set without him. Projected pairs include Vladislav Gavrikov with Adam Fox, Marcus Pettersson with Sean Durzi, and 18-year-old Alberts Smits with Braden Schneider. Scott Morrow and Matthew Robertson are among the extra defensemen.
The Bruins game is scheduled for 8 p.m. ET on ESPN. Boston will start Jeremy Swayman. Charlie McAvoy is serving a suspension and will miss the first six games of the season.
Iorio’s lower-body issue dates to a Sept. 21 preseason game against New Jersey. He was listed as day-to-day later that week and skated in a noncontact jersey earlier this week.
If he clears waivers, assignment to the Hartford Wolf Pack is the expected next step. Hartford would give him regular minutes while keeping him available for a recall if New York needs another right-shot defenseman.
The Rangers finished last in the Eastern Conference a year ago and missed the playoffs for a second straight season. General manager Chris Drury added several veterans and kept a handful of younger defensemen in camp. Iorio was one of the players on the bubble.
Waiver claims remain possible until the 24-hour window closes. No team had announced a claim by early Tuesday afternoon.
For now, Iorio’s season begins off the Rangers’ active roster, with Hartford the most likely destination if he is unclaimed.
