Zac Jones came into Rangers training camp with the same goal he’s had each of the previous three seasons.
The circumstances, however, could not be any more different.
This is the first time the Rangers did not bring in a brand new defenseman to directly compete with the 23-year-old for the sixth defenseman spot.
That’s not to say there’s zero competition, because there certainly is, primarily with Chad Ruhwedel.
But all Jones has to do is reach out and take what he has been working toward his whole life.
“It’s a great opportunity for me,” Jones told The Post while sitting in his locker on Saturday at MSG Training Center. “That was my mindset over the summer, is I got to come in and play my game and really prove to these coaches and staff that I can play a full 82 games. That’s my goal for this year, is to come in and be a regular player.
“We got a really good team in here, and I think I can help this team out tremendously.”
Jones opened up to The Post last season about how much better of a mindset he had regarding his role with the Rangers.
Serving as a depth skater, fluctuating between the AHL and NHL and getting scratched most nights was something the UMass product had never experienced, so the 2022-23 season, in particular, was an adjustment.
Jones finally settled into the seventh defenseman role and spent the entirety of last season with the Blueshirts.
The defense corps experienced several injuries, including a 10-game stint without Adam Fox, but Jones filled the void effectively each time he was asked.
“There’s definitely motivation from last year,” he said. “I want to be a guy that plays every game. Being a guy that was out for most of last year, being a healthy scratch, it gives you that extra motivation. I’m right there, but I want to be a little bit more. I want to be in the spot that these guys are in. I want to be battling in the playoffs. So it’s definitely extra motivation for me.”
The Virginia native made an impression on then-first-year head coach Peter Laviolette, who opted to stick with Jones as his 7D even after the Rangers acquired Ruhwedel before the trade deadline.
Appearing in 31 games last season, over which he scored two goals and dished seven assists, Jones skated with several different defensive partners — including Fox, Ruhwedel, Braden Schneider and Erik Gustafsson.
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“I’d like to see him pick up where he left off last year,” Laviolette said of Jones. “He came in and it seemed like the more he played, the more the season went on, the better he got. Played with confidence at the end, his skating was good, he moved the puck well, defended well.
“I think that got better as the season went on, so you look for that progression inside of a player. Training camp is where it’s going to start.”
Jones said he felt good about the stretch of 13 games he got toward the end of last season, when Jacob Trouba was out with what we now know was a broken ankle.
Building off that is the mindset he’s taking into training camp.
“I just thought at the end of the year I was skating a lot better,” said Jones, who focused on putting on weight during his training in Michigan this summer. “I was using my feet more. I was being more aggressive in the D zone, jumping up in the rush — just playing my game again. I felt like I was back to playing my style of hockey and it felt really good.”
