According to head coach Gerard Gallant, Ryan Reaves’ projected ability for the Rangers’ Oct. 13 opener at Washington “is going to be close” following the left leg injury he sustained after that awkward dance in the corner with P.K. Subban midway through the first period of Wednesday’s game against the Devils.

“When he left the game I said, ‘No,’ but the last couple days it’s going in the right direction,” Gallant said following practice Friday. “I can’t really say, but I think it’s going to be real close.”

The Rangers did a fair amount of mixing of their combinations Friday, with Morgan Barron and Dryden Hunt flanking Kevin Rooney while Filip Chytil skated between Sammy Blais and Julien Gauthier as bottom-six units. (Mika Zibanejad had Alexis Lafreniere and Vitali Kravtsov as his wings and Ryan Strome skated between Barclay Goodrow and Kaapo Kakko, while Artemi Panarin and Chris Kreider rotated through the line drills.)

The Blueshirts, currently carrying 15 forwards and eight defensemen, need to cut the roster by two before Monday’s 5 p.m. deadline. If Reaves is placed on IR, the club could keep an extra forward, but that would mean the enforcer would be ineligible to play in the first four games.

The Rangers have been expected to name a team captain prior to the opener, but Gallant wasn’t exactly declarative in addressing the subject. A possibility thus seems to exist that they might go without one for the fourth straight season.

“I’m still discussing it with Chris, we’ve been talking about it quite a bit in the last couple of weeks,” Gallant said, referring to general manager Chris Drury. “I’ve talked about it quite a bit where I came from different teams and it’s more important to me that the 23 guys are a big part of our group. That’s the most important thing.

“We’re going to make a decision soon, and we’ll decide what we’re going to do, but the biggest thing for me is that I need 23 guys to be leaders.”

Gallant confirmed the obvious: Zac Jones was sent to the AHL Wolf Pack on Thursday through no fault of his own.

“Jonesy did nothing wrong,” the coach said. “Everything Jonesy did at camp was excellent, he keeps going in the right direction, but it’s all about numbers and how many you can keep.

“He’s a young player, we like him a lot and he’s going to be in New York a lot. But with the depth we have on the blue line we had to make some tough decisions and that was a tough one.”