Report: Rangers Sign Defenseman Andrej Sustr to PTO
The Rangers are bringing in 6'7" veteran defenseman Andrej Sustr on a PTO. Can the towering righty carve out a role, or is Hartford his likeliest landing spot?
According to a report from NHL insider Frank Seravalli this morning—and later confirmed by The Atheltic's Peter Bough—the New York Rangers are adding another player to their training camp roster on a tryout basis: defenseman Andrej Sustr.
#NYR are adding defenseman Andrej Sustr to their training camp roster on a PTO.
— Frank Seravalli (@frank_seravalli) September 12, 2025
Sustr, 34, spent the last three years playing in Europe.
There are now 19 players who have signed #NHL tryout agreements with camps opening next week.
An undrafted defenseman from Czechia, Sustr made his NHL debut with the Tampa Bay Lightning at the end of the 2012-13 season after three years at the University of Nebraska-Omaha. He would only skate in two games that year but after a season split between the NHL and AHL the year prior, he spent the majority of the next three seasons as a mainstay on Tampa's blue line. Between 2014 and 2017, Sustr actually had some decent numbers and was good for anywhere between 13-21 points. His most enticing qualities of course, are right up the Rangers alley.
At 6-7 and 216 pounds, Sustr automatically becomes the Rangers largest defenseman. And to top it off, he is indeed a right-handed shot. A player that was highly coveted as a NCAA signing over a decade ago, Sustr's career certainly declined after his time in Tampa. He had two stints in Anaheim with stops back in Tampa, the AHL, and KHL sandwiched in between, and hasn't played in the NHL since the 2021-22 season. He's coming off a respectable season that was split between Pardubice in Czechia as well as Tappara Tampere in the SM-Liiga where he had two goals and 14 assists in total.
Realistically, the Rangers are extremely limited in terms of full organizational defensive depth. As the roster currently stands, the Rangers are one or two injuries away from having to seriously rely on the likes of Matthew Robertson and Urho Vaakanainen—a one-time teammate of Sustr's. At his absolute best at this point in his career, Sustr is a somewhat serviceable seventh defenseman. He has size and strength but his skating isn't great, his decisions with the puck aren't always the best, and nothing about his offense or defense truly stands out enough to classify him one way or the other.
Considering the fact that the Rangers have a number of players who fit that seventh defenseman type of role (Vaakanainen, Robertson, Carson Soucy, Connor Mackey, and Casey Fitzgerald) Sustr's chances of earning a roster spot with the Rangers is slim. However, he could be of use to the Hartford Wolf Pack if he's interested in returning to the AHL.
