Rangers’ Jimmy Vesey seems destined to make opening-night roster

It’s unclear whether the Rangers will ultimately carry 22 or 23 players on their opening-night roster, but regardless of the configuration, it is getting hard to leave Jimmy Vesey off the projection.

With a team bonding trip to Providence, R.I. coming up and two games left in the exhibition season, Vesey, who was signed to a professional tryout contract ahead of camp, has performed well in the three preseason games in which he has gotten a chance. He has two assists in those contests, plus a power-play goal and a diving stop on an Andreas Johnsson scoring chance at six-on-four at the end of the match Friday against the Devils in Newark.

Vesey has been here before, in the locker room now is near that of Chris Kreider, one of his teammates from those years.

“He’s very tenacious,” Kreider told The Post. “Works his ass off. … A guy that constantly wants to get better, constantly wants to improve, wants to be a difference-maker and you can tell his details are a lot better than they were the first few years, which was very consistent.

“He’s the kind of guy who’s real easy to play with. Gets on pucks, wins battles, plays physical, has a good stick. Plays quick and simple, moves hard, gets to the net. There’s a reason why he’s played so well with a bunch of different lines, he’s very easy to play with. Smart hockey player.”

The Rangers have a spot still up for grabs on their fourth line, with Ryan Reaves, Dryden Hunt, Julien Gauthier and Vesey all in the mix. Reaves will be on the roster barring something unforeseen, though how often he will play compared to sitting in the press box is  an open question. Rangers coach Gerard Gallant said following  practice Saturday that the Rangers likely have one spot open on defense and one in the forward group.

“There’s probably a lot of guys who you can figure out who are fighting for those spots,” Gallant said.

Vesey, a grinder who can play on the penalty kill and notched an even-strength expected goals rate above 50 percent on a bad Devils team last season, per Natural Stat Trick, has turned himself into one of the premier contenders.

“It’s been good so far,” Vesey told The Post of training camp. “I think going in, the preseason games would be the most important. I think you can probably break those up into the first four and the last two. First four went well and now we gotta regroup and get ready for the last two.”

Through the tail end of the match Friday, Vesey was waiting for a chance to show what he could do on the penalty kill. As time wound down, he ended up with a shot to play at a six-on-four disadvantage and came up with a marquee play.

Unlike earlier in his career, when you could write his name on the roster in pen, Vesey is finding it easy to get up for the preseason.

“I think in a weird way [being on a PTO] might actually help,” he said. “Just because the preseason can kinda be a go-through-the-motions-type thing. Whereas I have to be focused every game and it’s the second year in a row I’ve gotten a PTO. So I think I kinda know the drill.”

Indeed, he is executing as if he does.

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The Rangers brought their training camp roster down to 29 on Saturday, assigning Will Cuylle, Ty Emberson, Tim Gettinger, Lauri Pajuniemi and Andy Welinski to AHL Hartford.