Prospect Info: 2015-16 Rangers Prospects Thread Part II (Player Stats in Post #1; Updated 2.19.16)

[Ail]

If your scouting is good the more picks you have, the better off you are, assuming they're not all 5 - 7th rounders. Optimally yeah you'd have your first and try to maybe get a few extra picks in the middle rounds as well, but if you can leverage your first to make moves that help now as well as obtain middle round picks I would say that is preferable. Especially for a team who is trying to compete yearly. The reality is, and always will be, that for better or worse the Rangers are not a franchise who will accept bottom feeding willingly to obtain elite talent. So they might as well find a strategy that works for a team that is driven by the financial goal of just making the playoffs every year. So far, so good. The depleted farm comments espoused here are exaggerated. I'm more concerned that they moved a strong talent like Duclair that they were able to mine from middle rounds when that's the kind of talent they need to infuse as much of to stay competitive, particularly when the return is not something in the long-term plans. (Dumb.)

 

[nyr2k2]

Halverson GAA and SV% by month:

October: 3.59, .891
November: 3.49, .879
December: 2.40, .928
January: 2.79, .909
February: 1.98, .947

He actually started to pick it up before the WJC. The past thirty days though, he has been terrific.

 

[TheDirtyH]

If your scouting is good the more picks you have, the better off you are, assuming they're not all 5 - 7th rounders. Optimally yeah you'd have your first and try to maybe get a few extra picks in the middle rounds as well, but if you can leverage your first to make moves that help now as well as obtain middle round picks I would say that is preferable. Especially for a team who is trying to compete yearly. The reality is, and always will be, that for better or worse the Rangers are not a franchise who will accept bottom feeding willingly to obtain elite talent. So they might as well find a strategy that works for a team that is driven by the financial goal of just making the playoffs every year. So far, so good. The depleted farm comments espoused here are exaggerated. I'm more concerned that they moved a strong talent like Duclair that they were able to mine from middle rounds when that's the kind of talent they need to infuse as much of to stay competitive, particularly when the return is not something in the long-term plans. (Dumb.)

That's the Red Wings model, and it's a hard one to argue against. Also, this organization has done a great job to this point drafting and building a core group of players, supplementing rosters with youth, and doing just what you're saying in general. I mean, McIlrath is probably the latest example of a player who we can afford to give the time to and overcook. In general, if we're in a position to be a playoff team yearly, that means we're only going to be opening up a couple roster spots to youth on a yearly basis, it gives prospects more time to develop, and that allows us some leeway on drafting guys who are a little more on the raw side but with higher upsides than players ranked in similar positions.

Really, this team's screwed up in free agency and big payouts to the wrong players. I wish we'd be more conservative in relation to 'going for it' on the rental and UFA market.

 

[Pavel Buchnevich]

Halverson was also pretty good at the WJC's.

 

[Amazing Kreiderman]

Halverson was also pretty good at the WJC's.

Against Denmark and Switzerland...

 

[Pavel Buchnevich]

Against Denmark and Switzerland...

I get that, but he didn't get a chance against better teams because they decided the Canes goalie was the starter. It doesn't mean Halverson wouldn't have done well against the better teams as well.

 

[Pavel Buchnevich]

 

[UAGoalieGuy]

Hope he can get some games with SKA in the KHL playoffs.

 

[Amazing Kreiderman]

I get that, but he didn't get a chance against better teams because they decided the Canes goalie was the starter. It doesn't mean Halverson wouldn't have done well against the better teams as well.

Well, Hellberg has been pretty good for the Rangers this sesaon as well, then.

 

[The Gloaming]

NHLN is showing last night's London Knight game. Bernhardt, Tkachuk, Marner, Juolevi.

 

[Pavel Buchnevich]

Two more goals today for Saarela. He's up to 17+12=29 points in 43 games.





On his stats:

 

[NYR Viper]

I love that he seems to be a solid 2-way player. He's more in the mood of Stepan in that way

 

[Irishguy42]

Kovacs scored today. 20th goal of the season.



He just doesn't suck at shootouts/penalty shots. He's like a mini-Zucc.

 

[Beacon]

That's pretty insane. The kid just turned 20 around the New Year's eve, so he's the same age as Canadian Juniors players in their last year. The VHL must be a solid league - it pays higher salaries than the AHL, and serves as the top minor league to the KHL, which having watched both the KHL and the AHL, I could clearly see that the KHL is superior to the AHL, probably a mid-point league between the NHL and the AHL, and you have to assume that the VHL/KHL gap is nothing unusually massive compared to other first and second tier leagues.

To set a VHL record is probably better than to set an ECHL record, and sure as hell a ton better than to set a Canadian Juniors record. Our prospect poll had him as our #5 prospect, but personally I have him as our #1. No, not just based on stats, I watched him most his KHL starts this season (all their games are available for free online). Shesterkin put up quality numbers in the KHL (2.58 and .912) not because he was lucky, but because he deserved it.

I have no doubt that had he played in the AHL this season, he would've been one of the top goalies there, probably an AHL All-Star.

 

[GoAwayPanarin]

Kovacs scored today. 20th goal of the season.



He just doesn't suck at shootouts/penalty shots. He's like a mini-Zucc.

Epic celly too

Rangers did well with the 3rds from last year.

 

[Beacon]

Saarela is up to second on his team in scoring, third overall because he missed a few games playing the WJC. Finland is a quality league, so this is very good. Same for his WJC performance. Probably not a future star, we have not seen anything yet to show that he might be a 1C like Stepan, but I like his odds of being an NHL player unless his development stops or he gets injured again.

 

[BroadwayStorm]

I love Kovacs intensity. He is a total badass. I have never seen a swedish player like him. I like Saarela he is not huge but he doesn't play weak. I think he is very talented.

 

[Pavel Buchnevich]

That's pretty insane. The kid just turned 20 around the New Year's eve, so he's the same age as Canadian Juniors players in their last year. The VHL must be a solid league - it pays higher salaries than the AHL, and serves as the top minor league to the KHL, which having watched both the KHL and the AHL, I could clearly see that the KHL is superior to the AHL, probably a mid-point league between the NHL and the AHL, and you have to assume that the VHL/KHL gap is nothing unusually massive compared to other first and second tier leagues.

To set a VHL record is probably better than to set an ECHL record, and sure as hell a ton better than to set a Canadian Juniors record. Our prospect poll had him as our #5 prospect, but personally I have him as our #1. No, not just based on stats, I watched him most his KHL starts this season (all their games are available for free online). Shesterkin put up quality numbers in the KHL (2.58 and .912) not because he was lucky, but because he deserved it.

I have no doubt that had he played in the AHL this season, he would've been one of the top goalies there, probably an AHL All-Star.

I still have Buchnevich #1, but I understand what you are saying. Shesterkin could probably be a good starter in the KHL right now. Some of the Russian posters on HF have been saying that Shesty is every bit as good as Sorokin who's dominating the KHL this season, and I'd agree, he was also the better goalie at the 2015 WJC's. I watched some of Shesty's KHL starts as well, and I thought he was better than the starter and back up for SKA, so it doesn't make that much sense to me why he doesn't play more.

 

[ThirdEye]

Saarela's wrist shot is something else. I initially projected him as a quality 3rd liner, but the guy can flat out put the puck in the net.

 

[Pavel Buchnevich]

I think Saarela's offensive ability gets underrated because he gets branded more as a two way player than a loud offensive skills player.

 

[FLYLine27*]

Kovacs scored today. 20th goal of the season.



He just doesn't suck at shootouts/penalty shots. He's like a mini-Zucc.

...was the arena completely empty?

 

[FLYLine27*]

Two more goals today for Saarela. He's up to 17+12=29 points in 43 games.




On his stats:

]

To be fair, that first goal was a monster softy, no screen and from that far out he should have made the save....a goal is a goal though

 

[Pavel Buchnevich]

To be fair, that first goal was a monster softy, no screen and from that far out he should have made the save....a goal is a goal though

I think the goalie was probably expecting the first goal to be tipped in front, so he played the tip, which didn't happen and it went right through his legs.

 

[Pavel Buchnevich]

I say this a lot and I'll say it again, Gordie Clark does a terrific job. The picks he finds after the first round are excellent.

 

[FLYLine27*]

I think the goalie was probably expecting the first goal to be tipped in front, so he played the tip, which didn't happen and it went right through his legs.

Hard to tell, but I thought the puck went under his blocker/just above his pad.