New York Rangers: Ranking the prospects by tiers

Tier 3

Brett Howden, Yegor Rykov, Libor Hajek

This tier is for players who will be quality middle-of-the-lineup-type players.

Although I really like all three of these prospects, my favorite of the group is Brett Howden and it’s not even close.

Howden is a natural leader. He has served as the Moose Jaw Warriors’ captain over the last two seasons and was an alternate captain the year before that. Howden was a leader on and off the ice for his team, and while he might not have the high end skill as a guy like Filip Chytil (who we;ll get to soon enough) he has the work ethic to become a top notch player on the team.

Howden plays a tremendous two-way game and has a terrific shot in close. He’s the guy that isn’t afraid to go to the corners or the front of the net to make something happen. He plays hungry and has a very good shot to go along with his high IQ. He’s gonna be a fun player to watch develop.

It speaks volumes of the job Jeff Gorton has done to bolster the prospect pool when you consider he traded for all three of these players in the span of a week.

If all goes right, Howden could be a second line center while Rykov and Hajek fill out the second pairing of the next Rangers’ contender.