New York Rangers: Hartford Wolfpack Prospect Progress So Far

Many of the New York Rangers prospects are still playing for the AHL affiliate in Hartford. Today, we take a look at their progress so far.

The New York Rangers currently have a number of prospects, unlike previous years. Through trades and the draft, what was once a shallow prospect pool has been bolstered tremendously through their rebuild.

Some have already made their way into the NHL and seen immediate success, such as Brett Howden, who is currently second in the league in rookie scoring behind Canucks phenom Elias Pettersson. Filip Chytil, a tremendous player for Hartford last year, has had his ups and downs in the NHL so far.

Here, we will look at some of Hartford’s best, worst, and in between. While it has not been long enough to make any proper evaluation of their long term value, it is always interesting to see how first year pros transition into AHL play.

Without further ado, let’s dive in!

Best

Easily, Hartford’s best player has been Lias Andersson. Andersson currently sports 12 points in 14 games, and recently earned himself a call up to the NHL. Whether he returns or not remains to be seen, and is likely determined by his performance in the coming week. Either way, Hartford has been at its best when he is scoring.

Another nice surprise for Hartford have been the two top left handed defensemen, Chris Bigras and Brandon Crawley. Bigras, acquired from Colorado for Ryan Graves, has one goal and six assists in 14 games. A prospect who has always had a decent amount of potential, watch for Bigras to potentially play in some NHL games later this year.

Brandon Crawley has been especially impressive. Through nine games, he already has more points this year (6) than he had in 64 games last year (5). Whether this continues or not remains to be seen, but Rangers scouts have always thought he has some untapped offensive ability. For his and the Rangers’ sake, they should hope so.

Another surprise has been 25 year old Steven Fogarty. While not really a prospect anymore at his age, his performance has been impressive nonetheless. 13 points in 14 games for a player who has never surpassed 20 is quite a welcome change.

Lastly, Tim Gettinger is having himself a nice 20 year old season. Sixth on the team in scoring, Gettinger has four goals and three assists in 14 games while being a strong special teams player. A New York Rangers debut may be in his near future.

Middling and Worst

It has been an adjusting season for top prospect Libor Hajek. Just one assist through 14 games so far, but by all accounts, has shown decent defensive ability and a penchant for getting pucks to the net. At present, one can only hope that the offense starts coming and his complete game can begin to flesh out. However, he is still young and adjusting. Patience is going to be a key aspect of developing Hajek.

Import undrafted signings Ville Meskanen and Michael Lindqvist each have six points through 14 games. While that isn’t bad on the surface, at their age, they will need to perform a little more offensively in order to have any chance of cracking the NHL. Lindqvist being more of an offensive player gives him a slight edge in that battle here.

Ryan Lindgren is currently only sporting one assist in 11 games played before getting injured recently. Though not known for his offense, and better known for being a rugged, heavy hitting defensive defenseman, Lindgren did have four points in 10 games for Hartford last year, so there is still some possibility of potential there. He has struggled to stay out of the box, a pattern that he will hopefully grow out of.

Ty Ronning currently has a single goal in six games played. Hartford has seemed rather reluctant to use him, and if he does play a game, he doesn’t often play very much. An energetic, hard working forward with skill, Ronning does have potential to be a future bottom six scorer for the Rangers. Hopefully his situation does not turn out to be similar to what ex-Rangers prospect Robin Kovacs experienced in Hartford.

Lastly, there is defenseman Sean Day. A contentious prospect in terms of how his potential is viewed, Day has tremendous skills including some very gifted skating ability, but lacks a lot in many facets of the game. He had no points in six games before being sent down to the Rangers ECHL affiliate, where he scored two goals and added an assist in his first game there. Hartford and the Rangers both hope that stint there is productive and short lived.