Metropolitan Notes: Smits, Ryabkin, Blue Jackets

The plans for Rangers defenseman Alberts Smits will be decided in training camp next month. If he doesn’t make their roster, he could be loaned back to Jukurit in Finland, where he has spent the last two seasons and is signed through 2027-28. However, Jukurit’s head coach doesn’t expect that to be the case. Earlier this week, he told Ilta-Sanomat’s Ville Touru that he believes the fifth-overall selection in June to suit up for New York right away. Smits was the second blueliner off the board on draft day but will have some work to do to suit up in the NHL this season. The Rangers have seven rearguards on one-way deals, plus Vincent Iorio who was a full-time player on an NHL roster in 2025-26. With two moves to shore up their top four, it would seem that if Smits were to crack the roster, it would be as a third-pairing player, likely suiting up alongside Braden Schneider. If Smits were to play in nine or fewer NHL games this season, his contract would slide and still have three years left on it in 2027-28. More from the Metropolitan: Dynamo Moscow has requested that the Hurricanes loan center Ivan Ryabkin back to them for the upcoming season, notes Championnat’s Sergey Yemelyanov. However, Dynamo GM Alexei Badyukov indicated that they’ve been told that they have no right to make that request. The 19-year-old was a second-round pick in 2025 and made the jump to the AHL right away, though he was later loaned to the QMJHL for the second half of their season. Once that ended, Ryabkin rejoined AHL Chicago and played well in the playoffs, picking up nine points in 21 games. Ryabkin will join Carolina for training camp after training with Dynamo this summer but where things go after that remains to be seen. The Blue Jackets have made some changes to their scouting department. The team announced that Trevor Timmins has been appointed as their director of amateur scouting, moving up from his assistant director role. Meanwhile, Ville Siren, previously the amateur scouting director since 2016, is now their director of European scouting. Timmins held the top scouting job in Montreal for the better part of a decade and has been with Columbus since the 2022-23 season.