Noah Laba's on-the-job Rangers training includes shot to the mouth

When the ricochet of the shot he blocked flew up and hit him in the mouth Monday night against the Minnesota Wild, Noah Laba was certain he had lost some teeth.

He didn’t, though. Although he was a little stunned and had to be helped off the ice, Laba soon started feeling better. He needed stitches to close an ugly-looking cut in his lip, but once he got that done and the equipment guys put a full shield on his helmet, he was good to go and back on the bench before the period was over.

“He’s a tough kid,’’ Adam Fox said. “It was a great shot block by him. [It was] unfortunate, obviously, it went up into his mouth there, but he’s a tough kid. I’m not surprised he was able to get back.’’

Consider it just another experience for the 22-year-old rookie, who is going through a series of new experiences as he makes his way through his first professional season.

Laba, the Rangers’ fourth-round pick (No. 111 overall) in the 2022 draft, surprised most people in his first pro training camp by having an impressive preseason and forcing his way onto the roster, earning the job of third-line center.

He entered Thursday night’s game at Madison Square Garden against the San Jose Sharks still in search of his first NHL goal, but he had two assists and had played in all of the team’s eight games, averaging 10 minutes, 57 seconds. He had a plus/minus rating of +1, with zero penalty minutes, and had won 56.5% of his faceoffs (26 of 46). And he’d been used on both the penalty kill and the power play’s second unit.

“It’s been good,’’ Laba said. “Obviously, I try to focus on the defensive side of the game and then slowly grow my offensive side. Hopefully [I’ll] get to a point where I’m creating more chances and being more of an offensive threat.’’

“It’s been a little bit of a roller-coaster ride,’’ coach Mike Sullivan said at Thursday’s morning skate in Greenburgh. “He’s had moments where he’s played extremely well; he’s had other moments where it’s been a little overwhelming for him. And it’s not anything that we didn’t anticipate as a young player trying to make the jump [to the NHL].

“But we really like his game,’’ Sullivan said. “He brings a speed element. He plays with confidence, which we really think is an important element of playing in this league. And he also has aptitude. He’s learning every day. So the experience that he’s getting we think is invaluable. And we’ll see where it goes.’’

As of now, Laba has not yet been given the go-ahead to look for an apartment, so he’s still living in a hotel. But the 6-3, 214-pounder from Northville, Michigan, out of Colorado College, looks as if he belongs in the Rangers’ locker room.

He said his teammates have “done an awesome job of accepting me and making me feel like part of the team.’’ Captain J.T. Miller, he said, has been particularly helpful.

“To have a guy like that kind of showing you the ropes and telling you things here and there to help you learn and grow as a pro, is awesome,’’ he said. “I’m really grateful for him and all the other leadership guys in the locker room.’’

Miller said he has respect for Laba’s game and the way he came into training camp and seized the job.

“You see a guy like that — he plays an important role on our team,’’ Miller said. “I just think he could use, every once in a while, just a little thing here and there just to make his game round faster into form. He already does a lot of things really well, so it’s not like I’m in his ear all game.

“It’s just in the heat of the moment, things happen,’’ he said. “[You say], ‘Hey, maybe it would help us if you did X.’ . . . They’re typically little details. They’re nothing big. He knows not to turn the puck over. He knows to play good defense. It’s just little subtleties.’’

Notes & quotes: Igor Shesterkin got the start in goal and Sullivan stayed with the same lineup he used against Minnesota, meaning Jonny Brodzinski and Urho Vaakanainen were the scratches . . . The Rangers are leaving Friday for their longest road trip of the season, four games in Western Canada and Seattle, beginning with Sunday’s game in Calgary . . . The Rangers announced they’ve signed 19-year-old Nathan Aspinall, their fifth-round pick in the 2024 draft, to an entry-level contract.

By Colin Stephenson

colin.stephenson@newsday.comColinSNewsday

Colin Stephenson covers the Rangers for Newsday. He has spent more than two decades covering the NHL and just about every sports team in the New York metropolitan area.