New York Rangers: Ranking the prospects by tiers

Tier 4

Joey Keane, Ryan Lindgren

These two defenseman get their own tier because while they both have some question marks surrounding their game, they both project to be pretty useful players that’ll become every night NHL contributors down the road.

Ryan Lindgren is already an extremely popular prospect around this fan base.

As I wrote last week, Lindgren is the best example of hockey natural selection in the Rangers’ system. By that, I mean he has the hard-nosed, rough-em-up physicality that old school defenseman were known to have, while also having the ability to skate like some of the better puck-moving defenders of today’s game.

Joey Keane, on the other hand, is an OHL overager who is fundamentally sound in all zones. The advanced statistics community thinks he’s pretty good, too.

The issue with these two defenders in the eyes of the prospect analysis crowd is that neither looks like they have tremendous upside.

Lindgren did not produce a lick of offense in college. In 67 college games spanning two seasons, the Minnesota native only tallied three goals and 13 assists. With that said, his 10 game stint in Hartford was a lot more promising offensively. He notched two goals and two assists in that time frame.

It is worth noting here that Brady Skjei similarly didn’t produce much offensively in the same program, so Lindgren’s offensive numbers might say more about the system he played in then his actual ability. Yet, the questions still remain.

Whereas with Keane, there are many question marks surrounding his ability to get better offensively since he doesn’t really have any plus-level skills.

Regardless, both should make for solid third pair defenders if nothing else.