New York Rangers Prospect Kovacs Under the Radar

New York Rangers Prospects Own the Spotlight

In RangersLand, a tremendous amount of attention this offseason has been focused on the arrival of C/LW Pavel Buchnevich. At first, the attention was primarily centered around whether the highly regarded Russian forward would be coming to North America at all, having teased at making the journey for the past two seasons only to stay in his homeland in an attempt to polish his game further. Any skepticism as to whether he would in fact sign and play this upcoming season in the NHL, then, was wholly justified. The consensus is that Buchnevich is worth the intrigue, and so whatever attention has been heaped his way was certainly earned.

New York Rangers defenseman Brady Skjei /

In a sense, Buchnevich has sucked all the oxygen out of the room when it comes to the current Rangers prospect pool. RW Nicklas Jensen has certainly impressed with his showing at the World Championships, of course, and defensemen Brady Skjei has garnered praise for his recent work in the playoffs and now in the World Championships as well. The headlines, though, have predominantly gone to Buchnevich, and so it was within this construct that Robin Kovacs, a little known New York Rangers prospect with high-end skill, found himself on the outside looking in.

Robin Kovacs

This may all change, thanks to a recent mention of Kovacs in the May 18th post on SNY.com. In the post, Anders Carlsson, former New Jersey Devil and current Colorado Avalanche scout who is attached to the AIK of the Swedish Elite League, suggests that Kovacs has “ample opportunity” to sign with the New York Rangers this offseason.

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The New York Rangers second pick (62nd overall) of the 2015 draft, behind LW Ryan Gropp at 41, Kovacs was actually rated as the 51st best prospect of his draft class by Future Considerations, and labelled by them as the most underrated player in the 2015 draft. Most encouraging for Rangers’ fans is the fact that Future Considerations also projects Kovacs as a “Top-Six Goal Scoring Winger,” commenting that he presents as a “high skill offensive player” with “good hands, top-notch skating ability and acceleration” with overall “speed and mobility” being “excellent.”

It is interesting to note that Kovacs was actually a higher overall pick in his draft year than Buchnevich was in his, #62 vs. #75. Additionally, Kovacs was picked ahead Aleksi Saarela, recently traded for Eric Staal and considered by many to be a legitimate prospect despite being picked 89th in that 2015 draft.

Every draft is different, of course, but we can presume that the New York Rangers, seemingly with no first round picks since the Eisenhower administration and with very little margin for error as a result, would not spend what was a very valuable pick in relative terms without feeling strongly that they were getting a quality prospect.

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At this point, Kovacs is likely a long-shot to land a spot on the 2016-2017 NHL roster. That said, his game is considered well-suited for the North American game based on the fact that he plays with a bit of an edge despite not possessing overwhelming size. While he is 6 ft., he is listed at just 168 pounds, though it should be pointed out that at 19 years old he has several years before his frame fills out.

In the final analysis, Kovacs is amongst a handful of well regarded Rangers’ prospects who, over the next several seasons, will certainly challenge any and all currently established Rangers’ forwards without no move or no trade clauses. For an organization focused on getting younger, the New York Rangers find themselves well positioned to re-establish the speed game that separated them from the pack in the two seasons prior to the 2015-2016 campaign. Kovacs, with his combination of speed and scoring ability, figures to be a big part of the mix as that process plays out.

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