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New York Rangers: Why we should be depressed by the WJC Tournament

By Steve Paulus

MONTREAL, QC - JANUARY 05: Goaltender Ilya Samsonov #30 of Team Russia makes a stick save while teammate Grigori Dronov #23 battles for position with Lias Andersson #15 of Team Sweden during the 2017 IIHF World Junior Championship bronze medal game at the Bell Centre on January 5, 2017 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. (Photo by Minas Panagiotakis/Getty Images)
MONTREAL, QC - JANUARY 05: Goaltender Ilya Samsonov #30 of Team Russia makes a stick save while teammate Grigori Dronov #23 battles for position with Lias Andersson #15 of Team Sweden during the 2017 IIHF World Junior Championship bronze medal game at the Bell Centre on January 5, 2017 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. (Photo by Minas Panagiotakis/Getty Images) /
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MONTREAL, CANADA – JANUARY 5, 2017: Russia’s goaltender Ilya Samsonov, Grigory Dronov defend against Sweden’s Lias Andersson (L-R) in their 2017 IIHF World U20 Championships bronze medal ice hockey match at Centre Bell. Team Russia won the game 2-1 in extra time. Yelena Rusko/TASS (Photo by Yelena RuskoTASS via Getty Images)
MONTREAL, CANADA – JANUARY 5, 2017: Russia’s goaltender Ilya Samsonov, Grigory Dronov defend against Sweden’s Lias Andersson (L-R) in their 2017 IIHF World U20 Championships bronze medal ice hockey match at Centre Bell. Team Russia won the game 2-1 in extra time. Yelena Rusko/TASS (Photo by Yelena RuskoTASS via Getty Images) /

Six New York Rangers prospects made it to WJC team training camps and four made their teams’ final rosters. The popular opinion is that it’s a sign that the Ranger pipeline is flowing once again and the team is soon destined for better things.  There’s only one problem with that theory.

The problem is that five of the six Ranger prospects are defensemen.  Vitali Kravtsov is the only forward and is the only prospect in the New York Rangers system considered to have a top  offensive upside. For a rebuilding team, that’s a bad sign.

True, if Filip Chytil was not in the NHL and was playing in Europe or the minor leagues he would be one of the leaders of the Czech Republic team, but other than  Kravtsov, there are no young players in the organization for which offensive stardom can be predicted.

WJC Scoring

The depressing part of watching the WJC is seeing all of these young stud scorers playing heavy minutes and dominating the power play and knowing that none of them are future Rangers.  It’s early in the tournament, but already, some forwards are scoring a lot of goals. Philipp Kurashev of Switzerland leads the way with five goals.  He was drafted in the 4th round (#120) of the 2018 draft by the Chicago Blackhawks.  Maxine Comtois of Canada also has five goals and he was drafted  by Anaheim in the 2nd round in 2017 (#50).

Morgan Frost has four goals for Team Canada.  He is a Philadelphia Flyer prospect drafted in the first round (#27) in 2017.

Players with three goals include Ryan Poehling (Montreal, 1st round 2017 #25), Emil Bennstrom (Columbus, 4th round 2018 #120), Joel Farabee (Philadelphia, 1st round 2018 #14) and Morgan Entwhistle (Arizona, 3rd round 2017 # 69).

These are the guys who are on the ice when games are on the line and goals are needed and none of them were drafted by New York.

Is the WJC a true barometer of talent?

Does scoring well at the WJC guarantee similar success in the NHL and if so, how long does it take?  It’s worth taking a look at past tournaments to see.  Three players from last year are making some hay in the NHL.  Elias Pettersson is scoring by the bushel for Vancouver and Brady Tkachuk is a top rookie for Ottawa.  Brett Howden was the 15th leading scorer at the tournament and Ranger fans know what he has done. Jordan Kyrou, Sam Steel, Drake Batherson, Joey Anderson and the Rangers’ Lias Andersson have all seen action in the NHL this season.

Here are the top 12 scoring forwards in the 2017 tournament:

  1. Kirill Kaprazov, Russia
  2. Alexander Nylander, Sweden
  3. Clayton Keller, USA
  4. Dylan Strome, Canada
  5. Mikhail Vorobyov, Russia
  6. Joel Eriksson Ek, Sweden
  7. Colin White, USA
  8. Matt Barzal, Canada
  9. Jordan Greenway, USA
  10. Julian Gauthier, USA
  11. Nico Hischier, Switzerland
  12. Denis Guryanov, Russia

Of this group, Keller, Strome, Eriksson Ek, White, Barzal, Greenway, Guryanov and Hischier are in the NHL.  Nylander, Vorobyov and Gauthier are in the AHL.  Kaprazov is playing regularly in the KHL.   All of the NHLers are in their first or second year in the league and of course, Barzal was the Calder Trophy winner.

Let’s look at the top 12 forwards from the 2016 tournament:

  1. Jesse Puljujarvi, Finland
  2. Sebastian Aho, Finland
  3. Patrik Laine, Finland
  4. Auston Matthews, USA
  5. Matthew Tkachuk, USA
  6. Alexander Nylander, Sweden
  7. Denis Malgin, Canada
  8. Christian Dvorak, USA
  9. Adrian Kempe, Sweden
  10. Yegor Korshkov, Russia
  11. Nick Schmaltz, USA
  12. Sonny Milano, USA

All of this group are in the NHL except for Milano and Nylander who toil in the AHL and Korshkov who is in a KHL regular.  Matthews won the Calder Trophy as well.

So, it’s clear that success at the WJC is a pretty sure indicator of NHL ability.

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