Matthew Robertson seems to be the true forgotten prospect with the New York Rangers. Drafted in the second round in the 2019 draft, a full six years ago, Robertson signed his entry level contract just four months later. Clearly a guy the Rangers draft room loved, Robertson went from highly touted to afterthought in the short span of four years from his draft year. An injury, some chaos with the Hartford Wolf Pack, and minimal improvements in his game were all contributors, and “by default” he has finally stuck with the Rangers.
Perhaps “by default” is too harsh, since he did beat out Connor Mackey, Scott Morrow, and others in camp. But it was also clear the Rangers didn’t want to lose him to waivers, a stubbornness that was misguided with previous possible waiver casualty Libor Hajek. Still Matthew Robertson is getting that treatment, and he has the benefit of playing in a system better suited to his skills.
Robertson has skated in just one game thus far, and though it’s only one game, he was pretty impressive. Getting 18:07 TOI against Washington, the Rangers held a 21-10 shot share advantage (67.74%), a 0.78-0.43 xG advantage (64.21%), and a 3-1 high danger chance advantage (75%) with Matthew Robertson on the ice. Those are stellar numbers and certainly worthy of sticking in the lineup over Mackey, who was recalled due to the Carson Soucy injury.
It’s pretty clear Soucy has a concussion and will be out indefinitely. Concussions are always tricky, and hopefully teams are erring on the side of caution when it comes to returning to the ice. That could mean Soucy is out a while, or it could mean he’s out a week or two. Regardless, Matthew Robertson has shown he should get an extended look with Soucy out, and perhaps longer.
No disrespect to Connor Mackey. He’s a known entity and a good enough 8D on the Rangers. Though Matthew Robertson isn’t really considered a prospect anymore, the Rangers have the luxury of seeing what they have in the 24 year old defenseman. Initially projected to be a second pair defenseman as his ceiling, it’s unlikely he hits that mark. But for Robertson, the bar is simply being better than either Soucy or Urho Vaakanainen.
Funny enough, Vaakanainen has pretty solid possession numbers through four games, with equally impressive shot share (57.60%), xG share (60.16%), and high danger chance share (63.64%) while on the third pair. One of those games overlaps with Robertson’s season debut on Sunday. Soucy is well under 50% across the board, with his shot share and high danger chance shares near or under 40%. He’s struggled, but it was only two and a half games for him.
It wouldn’t be the surprise of the century to have a third pair of Matthew Robertson and Urho Vaakanainen, but it definitely isn’t something many people had on their preseason lineup cards. The difference between Robertson and Soucy is that Robertson is a better skater and puck mover. Soucy has his strengths in defending zone entries, but unless he improves other areas of his game, Robertson may steal that spot from him sooner rather than later.
More About: Players