New York Rangers Prospect Shines in IIHF World Championship
The Stanley Cup Playoffs aren’t the only place to get your hockey fix in the month of May You could also be watching the International Ice Hockey Federation’s World Championships. The New York Rangers have many representatives, and although some of them are really standing out—Derek Brassard (Canada) is 3rd in the tournament in scoring with 3 goals and 7 assists in 5 games—no player in the organization is getting people’s attention than winger Nicklas Jensen.
The 6 foot 3 inch Jensen was acquired from the Vancouver Canucks in the middle of the regular season for Emerson Etem. Jensen was the 29th overall pick by the Canucks in the 2011 NHL Entry Draft. Due to Jensen’s mere 6 points in 24 career NHL games and lack of consistency even at the AHL level, many considered him to be a bust.
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According to HockeysFuture.com, Jensen “can flat out fly, with an explosive first few strides, and great acceleration. His stickhandling is also very good, and he is creative when in possession of the puck.” Skill has been the name of his game and is why he was drafted so high, but the Canucks lost faith in their investment after his failure to build on those skills.
After Jensen was traded to the New York Rangers in early January, he had a bit of a resurgence while with the Hartford Wolf Pack. The 23-year-old winger tallied 15 goals and 10 assists to go along with a +7 rating in 41 games in Hartford. Jensen has admitted to feeling better about his game since the trade, and it appears that a change of scenery has done him well so far.
Jensen Excels Without a Supporting Cast
Fast forward to the World Championships, and you will notice that Jensen has continued to improve and gain confidence. The youngster is tearing it up for Denmark right now. He has 4 goals—which ranks as 5th in the tournament– and 2 assists in 6 games thus far in the tournament with a couple of shootout goals to go with those stats. Take a look at this beauty.
It is also worth noting that Jensen is playing on a team with only 3 other NHLers. Those players are the likes of Lars Eller (MTL), Nikolaj Ehlers (WPG) and Janik Hansen (VAN), so it’s not like he is putting these stats up with elite players.
The New York Rangers are going to have a lot of tough decisions to make this offseason as we have alluded to hear on BLS too many times to count so far this offseason, but the team would be foolish to not keep a close eye on this kid, because he is looking like he could be a solid bottom 6 player on a cheap contract for this team going forward.
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Jensen and the Denmark team will play their last game of the international season today against Kazakhstan. The team right now sits at 3-3, so this game will determine will be an important one.
I suggest you watch, because Jensen might be able to pull off another play like this one.