New York Rangers began to play the long game in the NHL Draft

The New York Rangers as an organization have decided to not take any shortcuts. The rumored splash for an impact player on the draft floor did not happen.

Sustained winning in any sport over time is a difficult task. As time passes, players need extensions, other players erode from the miles on their bodies, and of course there are moving parts around them. For all intents and purposes, the Rangers had a solid decade littered with close but no cigar. Three trips to the conference final including one trip to the Stanley Cup Final looks good.

However, the Rangers have decided from the top down that it was time to start over. Back in January when the front office declared the team would be going back to the drawing board that meant a number of things. First, it meant that pretty much anyone on the roster would be available for trade. This in turn would give the front office assets to use for the rebuild.

Now, the Rangers have not truly undergone a true rebuild for sometime. The conventional wisdom being that as long as the team had Henrik Lundqvist in net, they would be competitive. It may seem cliche, but even on last year’s terrible team, Lundqvist gave the team a chance to win on nights it should not have had a chance. Think back to those two games in Western Canada in which Lundqvist made 50 saves in consecutive games.

Now, with the 2018 draft in the rearview mirror, it is clear what the vision for the future is.

Age is but a number

As it currently sits, the Rangers roster features four players that are 30 years old or older. This figure does include forward Matt Beleskey who may or may not make the team for next season. In addition to the former Bruin, Marc Staal, Mats Zuccarello and Lundqvist are age 30 or older. The Rangers as a whole have an average age of 27.

The team has an interesting mix of young veterans and guys looking to make an impact in the NHL for the first time. The holdovers from the team’s conference final runs, Jesper Fast, Chris Kreider, and Kevin Hayes are sure to feature in the team’s plans. In addition to those three forwards, Mika Zibanejad, Pavel Buchcnevich and Brady Skjei are young players, (ages 25, 23 and 24 respectively).

This core of players is expected to get a shot in the arm in the form of Filip Chytil, Lias Andersson and potentially a few others for next season. The Rangers probably will not be a playoff team next season barring widespread weirdness. Of course, with better systems in place, the personnel could preform at a better level than last season.

The high end potential

The biggest indictment of the front office’s drafts the past several seasons was a lack of risk taking. The front office made safe decisions based on low risk that yielded average prospects. Although it is hard to tell at this point what Lias Andersson will become, he is in this mold. At every level of hockey, Andersson has posted points. However, there were flashy more long term projects available when the Rangers selected Andersson.

The logic surrounding picking the Swede at pick seven was he could jump in and replace Derek Stepan immediately. Of course, that did not happen and Andersson played only seven NHL games last season. That does not matter in the long term, but it does prove a pattern.

Yet, the 2018 draft was on the opposite end of the spectrum. This year, director of player personnel Gordie Clark made a series of comments about how the Ranger’s rankings were different than other teams. This of course was the driving force behind the team selected Vitali Kravtsov.

"“He’s such a high-end hockey player,” said director of player personnel Gordie Clark. “We had him as our second-best forward in the draft. Everybody was on board.”"

The prospect pool

The big difference between this offseason and ones in the past was a lack of panic. It was clear that the front office was being given a long leash from ownership to do this rebuild the right way. In addition to procuring draft capital, the Boston guys in the front office brought David Quinn into the fold with a five year contract.

Instead of trying to corral a proven coach and trying to swing a trade for Erik Karlsson, the front office decided to invest long term. Making the Rangers a modern NHL team will take time. However, the team has a prospect pool that bodes well for where the league is trending. In addition to Kravtsov, the team selected defenseman K’Andre Miller and Nils Lundkvist.

Being that the Rangers biggest weakness last season was a lack of quality on defense, the team did its job to sure up the organization’s future at the position. On top of Miller and Lundkvist, the team also has Libor Hajek, Ryan Lindgren and Yegor Rykov in the pipeline. Add Skjei and Neal Pionk to the mix and suddenly the team’s blue line in two or three years looks awfully stocked.

The plan

Knowing how this weekend’s draft went and how poor this summer’s free agent class is, it is clear that next season will have low expectations if any at all. Outside of an Artemi Panarin trade, there is probably no path in which the Rangers can acquire an elite talent for next season. Being that all the comments from the weekend were about doing the rebuild the right way, a big trade seems unlikely.

In fact, the Rangers may be in a similar position come next summer. There is a serious chance that the team finishes in the bottom ten of the league again. If it were not for Lundqvist, I’d suggest that the team could finish bottom five. The Rangers will not roll over and not try, but it’d be hard for them to have a competitive team.

Next: Grading the Rangers three first round picks

In every measure possible, the organization is attempting to do this the right way. Now comes the hard part, waiting for the prospects to develop. That is the implied risk from every single draft class, this all based on assumptions. Waiting for players to pan out will take time but should prove rewarding.

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