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Who Are the New Prospects? Some Info about the Deadline Aquisitions
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First off, I would like to show my appreciation for the Rangers management realizing that a rebuild might be the best option in order to compete in future years. The Rangers began to trade off some fan favorites and target young players to try to jump start said rebuild. It is understandable that people may be upset that after the sell offs. since we didn’t get an absolute ‘A’ level prospect, but at the same time –in something like Ryan McDonagh’s case– would you move someone like Mikhail Sergachev for 1.25 years of McDonagh if the sides were flipped?
Most of the value the Rangers acquired is in the draft picks. Given the now deep center prospect depth, getting picks in a draft dominated by wingers and defensemen is pretty nice timing to help build hopefully a future contender. Based on who the Rangers have acquired, I envision a team being built that will come at you in waves. Filip Chytil looks like he can be a first liner, Lias Andersson looks like he will be a quality NHLer too. The Rangers as of now don’t have a franchise prospect (hopefully a draft lottery win can change that), but the pieces that we have recently acquired are the pieces that can potentially develop into key players that help separate contenders from pretenders. Quality depth is just as important as elite skill.
Seventh Heaven – Patrik Virta is an exciting prospect to have
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The Rangers are about to enter a new era. We will be seeing more of a youth influx to the roster and one of the names that fans are getting really excited about is Ty Ronning. This is for fairly good reason, sure he is an older player in the WHL but you love to have a 50+ goal scorer in the system. It is still a long road for him but this is a great step to take. Ronning however, isn’t the only 7th round pick in the system that has been making noise this season. Last summer, the Rangers selected Patrik Virta of TPS and he has quietly been providing them with value few get from 7th rounders this quick after the draft, even for a two-times overager.
All stats from this analyses and hype post are from Simo Teperi (@SimoTeperi). He has built a great website to compliment the already comprehensive stat website from Liiga. Being able to get this deeper level analysis is extremely useful for dealing with any prospects, especially the European leagues where the team building may be a bit different than in North America.
NHL Expectancy of New York Rangers Prospects – A Cohorts View
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As you all know, I absolutely love looking at prospects and the upcoming draft. With more information readily becoming available, I am enjoying incorporating everything from individual scouting to the underlying numbers that have been unearthed due to research projects in the analytics community. Over the weekend, I came across a tweet by Byron Bader of the Athletic here that shows how likely a prospect can become an NHL player by using NHLe as a key. This piqued my interest.
I then incorporated Christian Roatis of NHLNumbers NHLe calculator to get an accurate NHLe for some of the Rangers forwards prospects. Byron’s tweet came at just the right time for me, I’ve noticed people have been complaining about picking Lias Andersson over Casey Mittlestadt due to point production, and while we can make the argument in regards to potential, the point argument in my opinion is invalid. When comparing NHLes both players have a nearly identical number which would also put them in the same cohort for Byron Bader’s NHL likeliness/superstar key.
Can Patrik Virta Push for an NHL Spot?
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As most of you know, one of the main hobbies I have regarding hockey is creating visuals for other leagues. Prior to this year I have been mostly focusing on North America and Russia but I will now be seeping into most other leagues. While doing my research to try to get the most information possible, I truly became a big fan of the New York Rangers’ 7th round pick Patrik Virta.
For the new readers, Virta is a buzzsaw type player, he gets in on the forecheck and is defensively responsible. Over the last couple of years, he also began to generate points as well. Seen as a good playmaker mostly from behind the net given his adept forechecking ability Virta also has a pretty strong shot that has been used on the PP.
Overall he has been growing as a player and the Rangers felt it would be worth drafting his rights before other people can sign him. One other thing about Patrik Virta, he is becoming an absolute possession monster and given that he is 21 years old, Virta may be pushing for a roster spot sooner than we may expect from a 7th rounder.
Let’s Chat Prospects – Gettinger and Chytil producing nicely
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Gettinger (Photo: Adam Bell, OHL)
I feel that last week’s prospect chat was received well among the comments section. Today will have a little less to talk about but perhaps the quality of prospects can be more useful this week given the state of the Rangers. I mentioned that if people want a certain prospect talked about to just send me a message on twitter or in the comments section so I will try to work with those names.
Let’s get excited:
Tim Gettinger – It is actually pretty funny that the Rangers drafted Tim Gettinger and Ty Ronning essentially back to back in 2016. They not only play a bit differently but I am pretty sure they’re a foot apart size wise. With all that said both have proven to be good late round draft picks. Gettinger has attracted a lot of fans due to his massive size and trend upwards as a prospect. It is actually quite interesting, normally people of his size that can’t skate get drafted in the 2nd round but when a prospect like Gettinger who has size but can also move fairly well somehow falls to the later portion of the draft.
Lets Chat Prospects
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The 2017 draft has provided something for Rangers fans that we haven’t had in years: First round caliber prospects that are likely one year away from the NHL. It almost feels magical, a year after a draft we have two talented young centers that can push their way into having important roles on the big club.
With all that said, we still have other prospects that are trying to make names for themselves. Over the course of the season, I will be trying to give updates on a handful of prospects that may interest fans. It won’t be all of them, but more so the ones that are making waves over the week. If I don’t mention a prospect that you would really like talked about, I will read the comments of these posts every week and try to see if I can incorporate a name or two whenever I can.
Making us Proud:
Graced by Vadim Shipachyov
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In the midst of the panic with the Rangers having a poor first two games of the season, one of the things that have been consistently talked about is Coach Alain Vigneault essentially benching 18 year old rookie Filip Chytil throughout the first two games of the season. Chytil has struggled, but when he is your defacto 2C, you can’t be playing him five minutes a night. Perhaps it takes a bit to get used to the tougher competition.
One thing thing the Rangers must do is add a talented center as soon as possible if the Rangers intend on sending Chytil back to Zlin (Czech league), otherwise the offense is in trouble. Adding a top-six center is incredibly difficult, and the Rangers don’t really have the chips to land a guy that fits that mold. It’s going to be easier said than done. So the club is going to have to get creative.
Top 10 Prospects for the New York Rangers
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Time for the final addition of my prospect rankings this year. If you missed it, here are rankings 35-29, rankings 28-21, and rankings 20-11. Without further ado:
10. Ryan Gropp, W – Ryan Gropp is a polarizing character on the Rangers prospect list. Don’t get me wrong, I like a lot of prospects more than I like Gropp, but given his physical traits and his quick release he may have a better chance at carving out an NHL career. It is hard for me to get excited about Gropp knowing the Rangers willingly passed on Daniel Sprong, Jeremy Bracco and Oliver Kylington and it is even worse when he hasn’t exactly made them look brilliant. While he is known to be a wonderful scorer with an NHL release, you would expect him to produce more as an overage guy in the WHL.
Unfortunately for the Rangers, he didn’t really get the offense going until halfway through the year when Islanders top prospect Matt Barzal returned to his pivot. His lack of offense was a major red flag, and coincidentally as it was becoming more profound we started getting prospect reports discussing Gropp’s drastically improved defensive play.
New York Rangers Prospect Rankings 20-11
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Time for the latest addition of my prospect rankings. If you missed it, here are rankings 35-29 and rankings 28-21. Without further ado:
20 – Ty Ronning (RW) – Ronning is admittedly one of my favorite prospects in the system. I am drawn to the small pests who can also chip in on offense, it is why players like Brad Marchand and Brendan Gallagher are among my favorite players. Ronning has been cursed with two things that have diminished his value as a prospect, his size at 5’8″ and the absolutely horrible Vancouver Giants team that he plays on.
The story with Ronning is simple, he is a buzz saw. Great on the forecheck, knows how to get to the front of the net and also has the quick hands that actually make him effective there too. Unfortunately for him, being part of a poor Vancouver Giants team hasn’t exactly allowed him to display his skills at that level consistently.
Here is the kicker. Just like his dad who was absolutely fearless on the ice, during Ronning’s brief stint with the Hartford Wolfpack, we not only saw his game transfer against bigger pros, but also saw it being used successfully. Ronning was still forechecking like a mad dog forcing turnovers from players who may be five inches taller than him simply because of his speed and smarts. He was a big component of his line actually being able to cycle the puck for an extended period of time which Hartford hasn’t been able to do much that season.
New York Rangers Prospect Rankings: 28-21
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Hey everyone. Sorry for the brief hiatus, I was studying for an entrance exam and with it finally behind me, I can put all my focus into hockey. Without further ado, here is the continuation of my prospect rankings.
28. Chris Nell G- It’s hard to believe that only four years ago the Rangers had arguably the worst goaltending prospects. Our future after Henrik Lundqvist looked bleak but then all of a sudden, BOOM we have a farm. Chris Nell was one of the recent acquisitions that added to an already deep crease and apparently, the Rangers have liked him for a while.
Two seasons ago, Nell had an astounding year on a pretty poor team for Bowling Green. I don’t really spend a lot of time watching college hockey, and when I do Bowling Green is certainly not at the top of my list. According to the sbcollegehockey.com, it is possible to attribute Nell’s less remarkable season to an unexpected death in the family.
The Rangers have had some good success in finding goalies in the unknown college hockey schools (Cam Talbot), so there is nothing I see wrong with getting a goalie who has shown the ability to carry a bad team. Nell has been known to be a more aggressive goalie, giving the Rangers a large variety in their goaltending pool style wise. Given the goalie depth in North America right now (Halverson, Georgiev, Nell) it can be fair to assume Nell will be getting a good amount of games with the Swamp Rabbits in the ECHL next year.