New York Rangers: A Sad History of First Round Draft Picks
By Steve Paulus
With three first round draft picks, the New York Rangers have a chance to revamp their organization and build for the future. Here’s a look at what the team has done with past first round picks. It isn’t pretty.
Many Rangers fans believe that the team hasn’t had many first round draft picks. Not true. They just haven’t had many good first round draft picks. While the team has drafted some solid players, the team’s overall record has been pretty bad.
Top Ten Picks
Miserable. That is the one word to describe the Rangers track record when it comes to top 10 picks. Since the league expanded from the original six in 1967, the team has had 17 picks in the top 10. Of the 17, only two went on to become “stars” in the NHL. The best of the lot and the best Rangers draft pick of all time was Hall of Famer Brian Leetch (#9 in 1986). Steve Vickers (#10 in 1971) won the Calder Trophy and scored 246 goals as a Ranger. Don Murdoch (#6 in 1976) could have been a star, until he was suspended for drug use and exiled to Edmonton.
Some of their top 10 picks went on to productive NHL careers, led by James Patrick (#9 in 1981), Lucian DeBlois (#8 in 1977), Niklas Sundstrom (#8 in 1993), Manny Malhotra (#7 in 1998), Ulf Dahlen (#7 in 1985) and Moose Dupont (#8 in 1969). Except for Patrick, all of these players had their most productive seasons after they were traded from the Rangers.
The history of disastrous picks began with the 1967 draft when the team selected Robert Dickson with the sixth pick. He and Al Blanchard (#10 in 1972) never played a game in the NHL. Jay More was the 10th pick in 1987 and played 406 games in the big leagues, but only 14 with the Rangers.