The draft lottery took place yesterday, and the results have some Rangers fans frazzled. The Blueshirts unfortunately didn’t land in the top three this draft, and will therefore be missing out on any of Rasmus Dahlin, Andrei Svechnikov, or Filip Zadina. The three of them are generally understood to be among the best prospects in recent memory, in particular Dahlin, and the fact that they won’t be Rangers any time soon is definitely a bummer. Still, this is an exceptionally deep draft, and I don’t think there’s any reason to panic about the Rangers picking 9th overall this upcoming draft. Allow me to explain.
1. We can still trade up – it’s likely not a great idea because of what we’d have to give to move into the 4-7 range (or even 3rd, as the Habs are allegedly open to trading the pick) and there will still be great players left at 9 (more on that in a moment), but if Jeff Gorton really really wanted to he could. There’s always a deal to be made, and this draft could be one of the silliest in recent memory, so I wouldn’t sweat it that the Rangers got the 9th pick because there’s a non-zero chance that they don’t actually wind up picking 9th. Still, GMJG may decide to stand pat, and then what? We’re left with some scrub? Quite to the contrary, we’ll be alright because…
2. This draft really is incredibly deep. There will be plenty of great players left on the board at 9th, trust me. In TSN’s mock draft for example, the Rangers are set to take Oliver Wahlstrom, with Adam Boqvist a pick below them at 10. Both players would be excellent additions to the Rangers, and would seriously augment this rebuild despite not being one of the big three. But let’s say you really did want Brady Tkachuk or Quinn Hughes, there’s good news still…
3. GMs do dumb stuff all the time. Exhibit A is that the Habs are even entertaining trading the 3rd overall pick (and they conceivably could do some really stupid thing like draft Tkachuk at 3rd because “character”) and exhibits B-Z are basically every other draft in history. Nobody would’ve expected, for example, Timothy Liljegren to have gone 17th last year when he had been getting hype as a potential 1st overall a year before until he got mono. Nobody in their right mind would have counseled the Bruins to pass over Barzal, Connor, and Kylington in 2015 but oh woops, they did. The draft is full of ridiculous surprises, and even the Rangers last year can be seen as evidence that sometimes GMs go a little out there in making their picks. It happens, and it invariably benefits some other team who was hoping their guy would fall anyways.
So I know this isn’t going to satisfy everyone, myself included, who wanted Dahlin in Rangers blue more than anything, but you’ve got to look on the bright side in life. It’s not great luck to pick 9th, but it isn’t terrible either, and if you just stick to the three basic reassurances above you’ll be sane enough in time for the actual draft when it happens in June.
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