Rangers goalie prospect Dylan Garand poised to live out lifelong dream

GREENBURGH — Goalie prospect Dylan Garand has thought about all of it.

What it would be like to pull the Rangers sweater over his pads for a regular-season game. To skate to the Seventh Avenue side of the Madison Square Garden ice surface and plant himself in the same crease that was patrolled by John Davidson and John Vanbiesbrouck. By Mike Richter and Henrik Lundqvist and Igor Shesterkin.

What it would be like to hear the public address announcer bellow his name as part of the starting lineup.

What it would be like to play in an NHL game.

“It’d be cool,” Garand, 23, said after a 50-minute practice Saturday morning at the MSG Training Center. “It’s the most famous arena in the world, and to have a Rangers jersey on and play in front of the home fans would be an unreal opportunity and such a cool experience. So yeah, if that comes, great. I’d be excited for it.”

Odds are that Garand, who was called up from AHL Hartford on Friday, will get a chance to live out a lifelong dream and prove to general manager Chris Drury and coach Mike Sullivan that he can be part of the Rangers’ future.

That’s because during his post-practice availability with reporters, Sullivan said backup netminder Jonathan Quick “is day-to-day with an upper-body injury and depending on how this week plays out, I would anticipate Dylan playing.”

When asked why the time was now for Garand to be called up instead of in early January when Shesterkin went down with a lower-body injury, Sullivan made it clear that Garand’s promotion was merit-based.

“There’s a lot of things that have gone into the decision to bring Dylan up, but what I’ll tell you is the biggest point is that he’s played extremely well in Hartford,” Sullivan said. “He’s given those guys a chance to win night in and night out, and he’s deserving.”

A fourth-round pick (No. 103) in the 2020 draft, Garand has compiled a 2.83 goals-against average, an .896 save percentage and one shutout in 36 games this season.

Which needs a little context.

After an admittedly disjointed start to the season for both himself and the Wolf Pack, Garand has a .919 save percentage and 2.06 goals-against average in his last 11 games.

“Definitely an up-and-down year. Coming into the year, we all had high expectations for our team and we got off to a really slow start,” Garand said in response to a question about his season and that of Hartford.

He has a 16-15-2 mark and the Wolf Pack have a 24-30-6 record.

“We’re just a really close group of guys and we weren’t quite putting it together on the ice,’’ he said. “I feel like lately we’ve kind of been getting that off-ice chemistry building on the ice. We’ve been jelling really well and we’ve been playing really good hockey down there.”

As to why the Wolf Pack put together a 16-22-5 record in the first 43 games of the season against an 8-8-1 stretch in their last 17, Garand was unsure.

“It didn’t make much sense,” he said. “I think our record wasn’t quite showing the way that maybe we were playing. We were losing a lot of games but they were only by one goal, and maybe even leading going into the third period. We just couldn’t find a way to get those results.”

He now finds himself on a team that is affording its prospects opportunities to compete for jobs at the NHL level.

One of which may be backup goalie. Quick, a future Hall of Famer, is 40 years old and will be an unrestricted free agent this summer. He could opt to sign with a team better positioned to compete for a Stanley Cup next season. The Connecticut native has won three Stanley Cups in his career (2012 and 2014 with Los Angeles, 2023 with Vegas).

“We all see what’s going on [with the organizational youth movement],” Garand said. “Everybody’s dream is to play in the NHL. So whenever there’s potential opportunity around, it’s exciting for the guys and pushes you to work harder and get better every day.”

Notes & quotes: The Rangers announced that defenseman Drew Fortescue, 20, signed a three-year entry-level contract. He recorded four goals and 10 assists in 36 games with Boston College. According to a league source, Fortescue will report to the Rangers instead of being assigned to Hartford . . . Rookie F Noah Laba (lower body) and D Urho Vaakanainen (upper body) are week-to-week. When asked if either will be placed on injured reserve, Sullivan said, “Right now they’re going to be week-to-week.”