Prospect Info: Rangers Prospects Thread (Stats in Post #1; Updated 5.29.18)

[Edge]

I think I asked before but don't think there was a response. Should we expect Huska to sign with the Rangers now? Why wait (from his perspective)? Not for UConn education (no disrespect intended but this is no Harvard we are talking about).

I wouldn't.

Huska isn't a blue chipper or absolutely dominating his level of competition, plus he plays a position that typically takes longer to develop.

His best bet is to get his free education, develop a backup plan for life after hockey, and sign when he's 22.

 

[Roo Returns]

Lundqvist became an NHLer at 23 going on 24. Shestyorkin is on track to do the same. Huska I never viewed as coming along earlier. He's a four year project, just let him marinate at UConn and see lots and lots of rubber, then he can come after next season and will probably start 65 games for the Pack.

Drafting a goalie in the top 60 or even 90 isn't recommended, but if one is available in the later rounds and BAP, make it so.

Day reminds me more of Backman than Byfuglien, I hope I'm wrong.

Remember, a lot of these are just prospects now, not all will pan out, and not all will have roster spots available. We were all pumped for Baranka, Potter, Kondratiev, and Pock being a huge part of the Rangers D for years. Many of those guys looked great in the preseason or even callups. The game is different now and there's more opportunity for young guys, but I think realistically, if 2/3 of Hajek, Lindgren, and Rykov are contributors, it's a huge win.

 

[Kovalev27]

Why? Its not like he's going to play in the NHL immediately. NCAA is a decent development environment. Four years there is good preparation for the pros. He'll be 22-23 when he starts in the AHL after that, and then within a few years, he could play in the NHL, if he's good enough. We don't need him playing in the NHL right now. Being an NHL'er at 23-25 is not out of ordinary for goalies.

I love the NCAA for goalie prospects. Im not angry that he's in the NCAA I'm angry that he went to UCONN of all places. a terrible team new program not even a great school frankly. Why he's still there is beyond me. if he were anywhere else I'd say fine stay. but this isn't helping him whatsoever.

 

[nyr2k2]

I mean I’d love for him to prove me wrong, and I’ll gladly admit it. I think most of our kids need to be in a zone system anyways, similar to how the US plays at the WJC. Those teams can defend and still know how to play fast north-south hockey.

Yeah understood. I'm not saying I think O'Gara is necessarily any good, just that we had a number of people come here and say he had potential to be a good vottob pair guy. I really would like to see him in a different system before I completely give up.

I ran into a guy who was a Boston fan the other night and wanted to ask him about O'Gara, since he seemed knowledgeable about them. Raved about Holden. Then he showed me his Patriots tats and said they were the new Yankees and I was like okay asshole go f*** yourself. So we never got to O'Gara.

 

[Joey Bones]

We can assume Jensen would be an upgrade over Carey because of his performance in the KHL, but his limited NHL experience doesn't necessarily support that.

Touchè

 

[Ranger Ric]

Oscar: You raise a very interesting point. While Day and Hajek could play an overage junior year you would think both would be bound for Hartford. Then you add Lindgren, Pedrie, Crawley, Bigras, O'Gara, Gilmour, and assuming Skjei, Staal and Smith as left handed defensemen there seems to be too many left handed defensemen. And then there is Bereglazov who can plan right defense but is not going to want to stay in Hartford. Bigras and O'Gara are RFAs and perhaps they are not qualified. If Bereglazov does not make the Rangers my guess is that his contract is terminated. And it sounds like Bigras can play right defense and I have seen Day play right defense. But you would think the Rangers will be making a minor trade to get rid of one of the left handed defensemen.

At the same time the Rangers currently have only 7 right handed defensemen in their system: Shattenkirk, Pionk, D'Angelo, Kaempfer, Sproul, Zborivsky and Nanne. Sproul is a UFA. I would be shocked if the Rangers don't draft a couple this June. I believe the Rangers might sign a free agent right handed defensemen to address this organizational need. I will pay paying attention to Cornell in the NCAA's this weekend as right handed defenseman Alec McCrae, who attended Rangers camp last summer and was voted ECAC best defensive defensemen, to see if he is on the Ranger's radar.

Going to be quite the competition for playing time at LD for the Wolf Pack next season

Lindgren, Hajek, and Day all coming in

While Pedrie, Crawley and Bigras are already there

Wonder if we'll see Day shift to his off side, I know his WHL teams were trying that for a bit

The Pack may actually be good next season with all these guys coming in, plus the addition of some guys they may draft.

 

[GAGLine]

I love the NCAA for goalie prospects. Im not angry that he's in the NCAA I'm angry that he went to UCONN of all places. a terrible team new program not even a great school frankly. Why he's still there is beyond me. if he were anywhere else I'd say fine stay. but this isn't helping him whatsoever.

I wonder if Cale Morris will sign a contract this summer, or stay in school. His numbers are ridiculous.

 

[Joey Bones]

I understand if people don't like Carey, Holland and McLeod, but I just don't understand the logic that a guy who is 25 and a guy that is 27 and aren't playing in North America would just automatically be better options. I liked Jensen, I was higher on him than a lot of people, particularly after his WC performance, but until a guy proves he can do the job in the NHL it's speculation to say that he could. Jensen would hardly be the first guy to play well in the AHL and KHL but not cut it in the NHL. He COULD be better than Holland and Carey but no one can make that definitive statement. Same for Klingberg who elected to go play in a significantly lesser league than Jensen and is two years older.

I'd love to have Jensen in camp, trying to win a spot. I'm optimistic he could do it. Klingberg, he'll be 28 by mid-season, hasn't played in North America for 3 years, and now plays in a mediocre European league. I don't know why anyone would want him to come back. He wasn't even much of a player in the KHL.

Feels like there's a sentiment that pervades HF that the guys we don't have are always better than the guys we do have.

I see where you're coming from. I'm just thinking Jensen never had the chance to thrive. Was given bottom-6 duties in the NHL. When given a top-6 chance in Jokerit, he thrived.

Just thinking the same could happen now in NYR, but it's moot until proven otherwise.

 

[Ola]

I would be curious if someone could explain the rationale for ranking Shesterkin, as a goalie, over high end skating prospects like Chytil or Andersson. It seems to me like goalie prospects, basically as a rule, should be less valuable than high end skating prospects because:

1) Goalie prospects are more uncertain and are tougher to project. We've been through this recently with Skapski and Halverson, not to mention Lafleur, Montoya, or Blackburn.
2) Unless an NHL goalie is able to sustain an elite level for several years like Lundqvist or Price, they seem to be relatively commoditized. The bar for a goalie prospect to be a legitimately valuable NHL asset seems to be higher than it is for a skater.

It seems to me like this is backed up by the facts that 1) teams rarely draft goalies in the top 2 rounds anymore and 2) out of the 50 highest paid players in the NHL, only 2 are goalies (and Rask is 49th). So when NHL teams vote with their draft capital and salary cap space, they say that goalies are less valuable than high end skaters.

I would be curious to hear the rationale if anyone ranking Shesterkin above Chytil or Andersson could explain why they have a different perspective.

Yeah, OTOH a very good goalie prospect has potential to become the best in the game. Our skating top prospects are very very unlikely to become the best at their position.

In the end I think a more relevant question is — should they even be compared? What is the point?

 

[Ola]

Kupari is a bit of this year’s Mittlestad. A little less flashy, but OTOH a RHS who is a little better 2-way. Could be that many passes on him since he isn’t physically developed and tries to do too much with the puck. OTOH he could become really good...

 

[YoSoyLalo]

Kupari is a bit of this year’s Mittlestad. A little less flashy, but OTOH a RHS who is a little better 2-way. Could be that many passes of him since he isn’t physically developed and tries to do too much with the puck. OTOH he could become really good...

Wouldn't mind Kupari at all in the 12-14 range, although I prefer Kotkaniemi. I fully expect the Canes to pick Kupari though if they keep their 1st.

 

[GregSirico]

Kupari is a bit of this year’s Mittlestad. A little less flashy, but OTOH a RHS who is a little better 2-way. Could be that many passes on him since he isn’t physically developed and tries to do too much with the puck. OTOH he could become really good...

That's a good take.

 

[Joey Bones]

I would be curious if someone could explain the rationale for ranking Shesterkin, as a goalie, over high end skating prospects like Chytil or Andersson. It seems to me like goalie prospects, basically as a rule, should be less valuable than high end skating prospects because:

1) Goalie prospects are more uncertain and are tougher to project. We've been through this recently with Skapski and Halverson, not to mention Lafleur, Montoya, or Blackburn.
2) Unless an NHL goalie is able to sustain an elite level for several years like Lundqvist or Price, they seem to be relatively commoditized. The bar for a goalie prospect to be a legitimately valuable NHL asset seems to be higher than it is for a skater.

It seems to me like this is backed up by the facts that 1) teams rarely draft goalies in the top 2 rounds anymore and 2) out of the 50 highest paid players in the NHL, only 2 are goalies (and Rask is 49th). So when NHL teams vote with their draft capital and salary cap space, they say that goalies are less valuable than high end skaters.

I would be curious to hear the rationale if anyone ranking Shesterkin above Chytil or Andersson could explain why they have a different perspective.

Shesterkin is a "high end" prospect that could compete with Lundqvist now if he came over. He's a Gagarin Cup winner, Olympic Gold Medalist (although didn't play, but excellent enough to even make the Olympic squad), 2-time IIHF WC bronze medalist and has a silver medal at the WJC.... while only just 22 years old. His stats are impressive, his highlights are impressive. It's pretty obvious he's NYR's best prospect. He's in a league of his own compared to NYR's other prospects. He's in a league of few compared to other goalie prospects. He could be Vezina caliber in the NHL.

Edit: I didn't mean for this to sound passive aggressive lolol

 

[Joey Bones]

I really don't think the prospect pool is all that good. I mean other than Chytil and maybe Andersson there's no one who's a lock to become a top 6 forward or top 4 defencemen. Lot's of depth though.

I could agree to some extent, but there is the potential of some. Howden has the potential to be top-6, Hajek has the potential to be top-2, Day and Barron have the potential to be game breaking. It's just a matter of how they produce stat/play wise in the NHL.

But you're missing Shesterkin with Chytil and Andersson. He could play in the NHL now!

 

[Edge]

Let me put it this way, if the Rangers come away with one of Bouchard/Dobson/Farabee, along with two of three from Kravtsov/Bokk/Olofsson, 90 percent of observers are going to have this team in the top 10 pretty quickly.

 

[GeorgeKaplan]

Let me put it this way, if the Rangers come away with one of Bouchard/Dobson/Farabee, along with two of three from Kravtsov/Bokk/Olofsson, 90 percent of observers are going to have this team in the top 10 pretty quickly.

It would be pretty close to the first round Vegas had last year

 

[haveandare]

Does anyone know how one could watch Hajek's games? I'd guess I'd need to buy some streaming package or something but I really have no idea.

 

[Amazing Kreiderman]

Why? Its not like he's going to play in the NHL immediately. NCAA is a decent development environment. Four years there is good preparation for the pros. He'll be 22-23 when he starts in the AHL after that, and then within a few years, he could play in the NHL, if he's good enough. We don't need him playing in the NHL right now. Being an NHL'er at 23-25 is not out of ordinary for goalies.

Not only is it a decent environment, but also good education.

 

[kovazub94]

Not only is it a decent environment, but also good education.

Again we are not talking Harvard education. If hockey doesn’t pan out go for a year to any school to get a bachelor degree.

By signing a pro contract next year he’ll get a chance at starting goalie or 1B spot in Hartford or at least get a chance to work closely with Allaire.

I’m looking at it from his prospective. If the Rangers think he’s not ready for transition then, sure, let him stay in NCAA.

 

[Heckler81]

Let me put it this way, if the Rangers come away with one of Bouchard/Dobson/Farabee, along with two of three from Kravtsov/Bokk/Olofsson, 90 percent of observers are going to have this team in the top 10 pretty quickly.

I read that we are ranked 10th now. The draft will have us top 5 when it's done. Hopefully, we can win one of the top 3 picks.

 

[mike14]

Ty Ronning named as a 2nd team All-Star for WHL West

 

[Alluckks]

Wolfpack will be very fun next year, expect to have:

Howden, Hajek, Ronning, Lindgren, Day all there. Add to that guys like Nieves and Lettieri (most likely will be there again imo).

This is also assuming Andersson and Chytil make the team and stay there.

Ronning maybe the next Hagelin for our team with a little less speed but better shot/similar production? Maybe he meshes with Howden.

For the LD convo - I think Brigas or Day would be most likely to play their off-side, if no other reason than to have the proper development for Hajek and Lindgren; wouldn't be a bad thing for Day or Brigas to be show some flexibility in play style and side preference, enables them to be a better 7th D at NHL level.

 

[Joey Bones]

I think out of all the defensemen prospects NYR will have next year, Hajek makes the team.

 

[Harbour Dog]

I think out of all the defensemen prospects NYR will have next year, Hajek makes the team.

Does this include ADA, Pionk and Gilmour?

 

[Joey Bones]

Does this include ADA, Pionk and Gilmour?

I think so. I don't see Gilmour remaking the team and ADA will have a run for his money with Hajek. He skates with the puck more fluently, IMO, and has a good defensive game (something DeAngelo doesn't have much of).

I think Pionk has solidified himself next season.