On Friday, March 15th, 2019, the New York Rangers agreed to terms on a contract with WHL forward and free agent Jake Elmer.
This past Friday, the New York Rangers announced that they had signed Jake Elmer. The forward currently plays in the WHL and was a free agent up until committing to the Rangers.
Though only 20 years old, he already has quite a bit of professional hockey experience. He made his first appearance in the WHL back in the 2014-2015 season when he played three games for the Regina Pats.
The following year, Elmer split his time between the WHL’s Regina Pats and the AJHL’s Grande Prairie Storm. He didn’t record any points with Regina in 17 games, but he did come away with four points (one goal and three assists) in 20 games with the Storm.
During the 2016-2017 season, the forward divided his time up between an AJHL team and a WHL team once again, this time with the Grande Prairie Storm and the Kootenay Ice. With the Storm, he had nine goals and three assists for 12 points in 20 games, definitely an improvement from his previous year’s campaign with them.
With the Ice, Elmer had seven goals and nine assists for a total of 16 points in 46 games, another improvement. After that season, he had proved that he had progressed enough to remain in the WHL full time.
He started the 2017-2018 season with the WHL’s Lethbridge Hurricanes. In 70 games there, he notched 18 goals and 19 assists totaling 37 points, finally starting to gain his footing as a WHL regular.
So far this season, Jake Elmer is having the best campaign of his professional hockey career. He has 39 goals and 42 assists for 81 points in 68 games. Some say it is because he is playing on the right side of center Dylan Cozens, who is anticipated to be a top ten pick in the June draft. However, his numbers are impressive and suggest that he is not riding Cozens’s coattails.
He set career highs in goals, assists, and points. He even had a 13 game goal streak this year, from February eighth to March sixth, putting up 17 tallies during that almost month-long period.
Elmer’s goal streak was tied for the longest one in the WHL since the 1996-1997 season. He even entered this final weekend of the WHL season riding a 16-game point streak, which he has recorded 32 points during (18 goals and 14 assists); 11 of those games were multi-point contests for the forward as well.
He shares the league lead for shorthanded goals with six and falls in the league’s top 15 for various other categories as well, including goals (11th with 38), game-winning goals (12th with seven), shots on goal (14th with 245), and points (15th with 67).
Obviously, Jake Elmer’s professional career has been off to a great start. Though slow at first, he’s showing a ton of potential and could become something big in the future if his success carries over into the AHL and then NHL.
Currently, he’s a generally well-rounded player in the NHL, a good skater who generates offense and can serve as a playmaker for his teammates. He has a great shot and battles hard for pucks, despite not being an overly physical player.
While Jake Elmer obviously isn’t going to save the New York Rangers from where they are right now, and he probably won’t be the crucial missing piece that wins them a Stanley Cup, this was a good move for the team. There’s virtually no risk in this situation, and it could turn out a lot better than some think.