Grading the New York Rangers’ three first round picks
The New York Rangers ended up making three picks in the NHL Draft’s first round. How did the team make out?
The New York Rangers had a very interesting draft.
They seemed to zig when others expected them to zag, especially with their first two picks, but overall, they acquired some solid prospects for their system.
As this is being written, the first round of the draft just ended about 20 minutes ago, so these takes and grades in this post are going to be coming-out-of-the-oven hot. When things simmer down by the end of next week, we’ll do this exercise again, but I think it will be interesting to look back on how we felt immediately afterwards in a few years from now.
The Rangers currently have six picks to make on Saturday morning, three of which are in the top two rounds. There is still plenty of work to be done, but let’s evaluate how the Rangers did on the draft’s first day.
Vitali Kravtsov, RW, KHL
BLS pre-draft ranking: #14
Look, nearly every Rangers fan was dying for the team to take Oliver Wahlstrom from the USHL. Defensemen Noah Dobson and Evan Bouchard were also on the board, ripe for the picking. They chose to avoid all three of them and take Kravtsov, a 18-year Russian forward from the KHL.
Some fans were moaning and groaning about who they missed out on rather than who they got; a helluva hockey player.
Kravtsov is a big, big power forward who can skate with the best of them. He’s primarily a scorer and while his KHL regular season numbers won’t jump out at you, the fact that he was getting minutes — top-six minutes — with a KHL team is impressive on it’s own merit. Add in the fact that he had 11 points in 15 playoff games and you can understand how a team could be so excited about his potential.
Related: Rangers select Kravtsov with the ninth pick
The Rangers, who spent a lot of time scouting players in Europe this past season, viewed him as a can’t miss prospect.
Gordie Clark said #NYR ranked Kravtsov as 2nd best forward in the draft and made that decision a while ago
— Rick Carpiniello (@RickCarpiniello) June 23, 2018
The best way for the Rangers to rebuild this thing well is to take a chance on high end talent. The Rangers did just that. Was there risk involved? Sure, there always is when you draft an 18-year-old, whether he’s from the U.S., Russia, or anywhere else. He needs to work on his game when he doesn’t have the puck on his stick, but when he has the biscuit, he sure knows what to do with it.
GRADE: B+
K’Andre Miller, LHD, USHL
BLS pre-draft ranking: #28
Miller is the definition of a project player. The Hopkins, Minnesota native has all the tools to become one of the best defenseman in the game, but he has a lot of work to do to get there.
Miller is very raw. Formerly a forward, he just began to be a blueliner two years ago. As you could imagine, their is a huge learning curve there, and so far, Miller is making tremendous strides.
The advanced statistics concur with this notion, just as The Athletic’s Mitch Brown suggests.
K'Andre Miller (#NYR) was the most well-rounded defenceman in my data set. Mobile, powerful, skilled, smart. Great man-on-man defender with puck-moving ability. I think his offence is underrated, too. pic.twitter.com/677a45k1fW
— Mitchell Brown (@MitchLBrown) June 23, 2018
Speaking of making tremendous strides, Miller is 6-foo-4 inches tall and, like Kravtsov, can skate like the wind, making him a really valuable asset to the team. Miller is also touted at one of the smartest players in the draft, which bodes well for him as well.
One area of concern in his game is his offensive upside. Towards the end of this past season, Miller began to show progress in that area of his game. He still has a long way to go in this area, but as I said, he is making strides.
Scouts have also raved about his character, and we know how that has been a focal point of what the Rangers are looking for in the players they are bringing in.
The only thing that takes away from this selection is the fact that they might have been able to grab him at 26 had they stayed put. At the end of the day, though, the Rangers got their guy.
GRADE: B
Nils Lundkvist, RHD, SHL
BLS pre-draft ranking: Not in first round but had first round votes
The first thing I thought of when the team made this pick was that I feel awful for Sam Rosen because the Rangers now have Lundqvist, Lundkvist and Lindqvist.
Lundkvist is the prototypical Swedish defensman. He is very reliable in both ends of the ice and relies on his speed and passing ability to make plays. He is technically “undersized” but at 5-foot-11 and 180 lbs, in today’s NHL, that’s fine. Don’t expect a lot of flashiness in his game. He’s just a solid, all-around hockey player.
In terms of all the Rangers picks from Friday night, Lundkvist is probably the closest to being NHL ready.
Like I mentioned earlier, the Rangers spent a whole lot of time scouting in Europe. They’ve seen this kid play a lot, so they probably know a lot more about him than you and I. He appears to have solid top-four defenseman potential which is all you could ask for with the 28th pick.
GRADE: B+
Overall Grade
I think the Rangers did a lot of really good things in round one. Maybe they didn’t have to trade up to go and get Miller, but he’s a guy who they really liked and was supposed to go in the 20-30 range somewhere. With how some of the picks were made in the round, who the heck knows if he’d be taken before they could get their hands on him. After all, the team still has six more picks tomorrow and I suspect — just a guess — that they’ll trade down on at least one of them.
But the Rangers drafted for high upside, skill, speed and character. Those are all great things, and in the beginning of a rebuild, you need to take some risks.
They did just that.
Next: Blue Line Station's NHL Draft big board
These guys — except for maybe Lundkvist — are probably two or three years away from the NHL. Kravtsov’s KHL deal expires after next season so maybe he comes to North America in 2019-20. The point is, these are extremely young players with upside as high as the clouds.