The Summer of Rempe will start with a 38-hour drive home to Calgary.
And, Matt Rempe hopes, he will return to New York for training camp a more complete player, ready to be in the lineup every night and play consistent minutes.
“I want to bring more to the table,” Rempe said Tuesday at Rangers breakup day, his right eye swollen from an infection. “I want to be a guy who can play 8 to 12 minutes every single night.
“I want to be real good defensively. I eventually want to be a penalty-killer, but I gotta earn all these things. I want to work on my skating, work on my skill set, making plays with the puck, passing, every part of my game. I also want to work on the fighting — I want to be a guy, I really enjoy that part of the game. I want to continue to work on that and then get stronger, growing into my body, more mobility, everything. I got a lot of work to do.”
The Winter of Rempe played out in the public eye, with the Garden crowd chanting for every shift and every hit.
The 21-year-old played in 28 games, including the postseason, and became a phenomenon of sorts.
His friends have been joking about getting free beers back home thanks to Rempe’s newfound fame.
The Summer of Rempe, though, will be a quiet affair.
“Just hang out, stay at home, live with my mom,” Rempe said. “It’ll be sweet. Me and my buddy got our whole summer planned out. We even signed up for some Pilates. It’ll be good.
“I’m excited just to go home and hang out. It’s been a lot. It’s been crazy the last three months, but I’m excited to get on the road [Wednesday] and just process it all. It’ll be nice to get on the road, process everything, and I’m very excited to come back. I know what I need to do, so I’m excited.”
Where Rempe emerged from nowhere this season, he will come into training camp with expectations to make the team and make an impact.
His fights will surely continue to go viral, but Rempe must be more than a caricature or sideshow. Assuming he is indeed on the roster, it will be for a reason.
“I want to earn it,” he said. “I just want to be better every day. I want to show the steps I’ll take and maybe next year, earn it more.”
The Winter of Rempe had some fever dream elements to it.
The Summer of Rempe is about making all that a lasting reality.