New York Rangers: Taking a look at their draft record and thoughts about the future

How good is the New York Rangers record at the NHL Entry Draft?   It seems like  other NHL teams have done much better than the Blueshirts, but annual playoff appearances argue that the team has actually done a good job. It’s when it come to top picks that they falter.

It’s easy to be negative about the New York Rangers’ ability to draft good players.  That perception is really based on a horrible record of drafting top picks.  They Rangers have been very good at finding solid players later in the draft and have made some spectacular finds in the late rounds.

Today we will take a deeper look at the Rangers track record at the Entry Draft.  Yesterday we took a look at the Rangers record in drafting a stud goal scorer.  It wasn’t a pretty picture.

When it comes to defensemen and goalies, the team has a pretty solid drafting resume.   Goalies include Henrik Lundqvist, Mike Richter, John Vanbiesbrouck, Doug Soetaert, Dan Cloutier and Al Montoya.

The Rangers selection of Lundqvist in the 7th round, 205th overall, ranks as possibly the best late round pick in NHL history.  Vanbiesbrouck was a fourth round pick in 1981.  While some may feel that the Rangers wasted first round picks on Montoya and Cloutier, they both ended up having long NHL careers, though not in New York.

They have drafted two Hall of Fame Defensemen in Brian Leetch and Brad Park.  Others who had notable NHL careers include James Patrick, Sergei Zubov, Dave Maloney, Ron Greschner, Mike McEwen, Mario Marois, Tom Laidlaw, Reijo Ruotsalainen, Kjell Samuelsson, Mattias Norstrom, Kim Johnsson, Fedor Tyutin, Marek Zidlicky, Michael Del Zotto, Michael Sauer and the current Rangers, Mark Staal and Brady Skjei.

Some late rounds gems include 4th rounders like Marois,  5th rounders like Zubov and 6th rounders like Laidlaw, Samuelsson and Ruotsalainen,  In 1994, the Rangers selected Kim Johnsson with the 286th pick in the 11th round, the last pick of the draft.  He made it to the Rangers, but was traded to Philadelphia in the Eric Lindros deal  in his sophomore season.  He retired after ten years in the NHL, playing  739 games.

Top Picks

As for Rangers drafting acumen, they have had a pick in the top 15 eleven times since winning the Cup in 1994.  Their track record isn’t good when it comes to those picks and if Lias Andersson doesn’t develop into an NHL star, it will just reinforce that reputation.  Here are the selections:

1998      Manny Malhotra  #7
1999      Pavel Brendl  #4
1999      Jamie Lundmark  #9
2001      Dan Blackburn  #10
2003      Hugh Jessiman  #12
2004      Al Montoya   #6
2005      Mark Staal    #12
2010      Dylan McIIrath   #10
2011      J.T. Miller  #15
2017     Lias Andersson #7
2018     Vitali Kravtsov  #9

Of those 11 picks, five were absolute busts.  It’s too early to tell about Andersson and Kravtsov.  Staal and Miller are above average NHL players while Malhotra and Montoya had decent careers.

Let’s compare that record to the Los Angeles Kings, the Rangers’ 2014 nemesis.  Since 1994, the Kings have had ten picks in the top 15.  One was a bust.  Five players had solid NHL careers for other teams.  Three went on to win Stanley Cups and one is with the current team. Of that group, Dustin Brown was picked #13 in 2003, the year the Rangers picked Jessiman.

Worst Rangers Draft Pick Ever

Since we mentioned Hugh Jessiman, let’s look at how bad that pick was.  Hugh Jessiman was a massive forward playing for Dartmouth. At 6’6″,   220 lbs. his nickname was “Huge Specimen.”  At the time of the draft he was expected to go around 20th in the first round.  The Rangers gambled and picked him 12th.

Okay, it was a gamble, but it wasn’t such a bad one at the time.  In his first year at Dartmouth he had scored 23 goals and added 24 assists for 47 points in only 34 games.  While those numbers sound good by current standards, he was 14th overall in the NCAA Division One points per game.  He was even behind teammate Lee Stempniak who was drafted in the fifth round the same year.  He was also behind some other familiar names including Dominic Moore, Chris Higgins, Zach Parise and Chris Kunitz.

At any rate, Jessiman never panned out.  He shuttled between the AHL and ECHL, never scoring more than 18 goals in a season before being traded to Nashville.  He finally made his NHL debut with Florida in 2011.  He played in two game with a point.  His NHL career consisted of 14:42 of ice time.

Okay, so they made a bad pick. It happens.  It just happened to come at the 2003 Entry Draft, considered by many to be one of the best draft classes ever.  Here are the players the Rangers could have drafted who were selected in the first two rounds after they picked Jessiman:

Dustin Brown, Brent Seabrook, Ryan Getzlaf, Brent Burns, Zach Parise, Eric Fehr, Mark Stuart, Ryan Kesler, Mike Richards, Brian Boyle, Corey Perry, Loui Eriksson, Kevin Klein, Patrice Bergeron,

Shea Weber, Corey Crawford, Matt Carle and David Backes.

That group includes eight Stanley Cup winners, five All-Stars, five Selke Trophies, and one each of the Norris, Hart, Rocket Richard, Masterton, and King Clancy Trophies.  And the Rangers drafted Hugh Jessiman.

Seven years with nothing to show for it

Missing the playoffs generally means an opportunity to draft top young talent.   As usual, the Rangers don’t compare well to other teams in the same boat.

The Penguins missed the playoffs for three years from 2001-06.  They were four for four, drafting Ryan Whitney, Marc-Andre Fleury, Evgeni Malkin and Jordan Staal in the first round,  coming out with one NHL player and three Penguin stars.

The Washington Capitals missed the playoffs every year but once from 2002-07.  They ended up with Steve Eminger, Alexander Semin, Alex Ovechkin, Sasha Pokulok, Nicklas Backstom and Karl Alzner out of their first round picks.  That’s four longtime Capitals out of six picks.

The Chicago Black Hawks made the playoffs only once from 1997-2008.  Their first round picks were Dan Cleary, Mark Bell, Steve McCarthy, Mikhail Yakubov, Tuomo Ruutu, Brent Seabrook, Cam Barker, Jack Skille, Jonathan Toews, Patrick Kane and Kyle Beech.  The Black Hawks didn’t do  well with most of the picks, but hit paydirt with Toews, Kane and Seabrook.  They were five for 11 with three picks becoming stars for Chicago.

So, how about the Rangers?

The Rangers missed the playoffs for seven straight seasons from 1998 to 2004.   They traded two picks away.  Here’s what they ended up with: Manny Malhotra, Pavel Brendl, Jamie Lundmark, Dan Blackburn, Hugh Jessiman and Al Montoya.   For missing the playoffs for seven years, they ended up with two NHL players who had decent careers and not a single Ranger player.

There is one reason why that seven year stint in the wilderness didn’t pay off.  They were never bad enough to get a top five pick and when they traded up to get one, they blew it on Pavel Brendl.   In order for the Penguins, Capitals and Black Hawks to find those future stars they had to be so bad that they were picking in the top five:

#1 overall: Marc Andre Fleury, Alex Ovechkin, Patrick Kane
#2 overall: Evgeni Malkin, Jordan Staal
#3 overall: Jonathan Toews
#4 overall: Nicklas Backstom
#5 overall: Ryan Whitney, Karl Alzner

Once they made their picks, they all got better in a hurry and combined have six Stanley Cups to show for it.

How it relates to the 2018-19 New York Rangers

Why is this relevant? Because it clearly proves that when a team is rebuilding, it’s far better to be awful than to be mediocre.  As wonderfully unexpected as it is to have the current team in the thick of the playoff hunt, to end up with a pick out of the top five won’t do much to help accelerate the rebuild.

By finishing with the ninth overall lottery pick last year, the Jeff Gorton gambled and instead of taking a “safe” pick, the Rangers selected a player with a huge upside in Vitali Kravtsov.   While he may end up being the steal of the draft, by not finishing lower they missed out on Rasmus Dahlin, Andrei Svechnikov, Jesperi Kotkaniemi or Brady Tkachuk.  All four are already making solid contributions to their NHL teams.

Although the Rangers are only three points out of a playoff position, they are also only eight points better than the worst team in the league.  If the Rangers do have a sell-off of assets at the trade deadline, it will for all of the right reasons. If it gets them that much closer to Jack Hughes, Kaapo Kakko, Kirby Dach, Vasily Podkolzin or Dylan Cozens it will be worth it.