New York Rangers: The latest on their entry draft picks

After Dallas lost there is one more game to go before the New York Rangers will know the final positions of their array of Entry Draft picks this June.

When the Dallas Stars lost 2-1 in double overtime to St. Louis and were eliminated from the playoffs, the New York Rangers were losers as well and the conditional pick they acquired from Dallas in the Mats Zuccarello trade, remained a second round pick.

The winner of the Colorado-San Jose series will determine whether the first round pick acquired in the Kevin Hayes deal from Winnipeg will be the 19th or the 20th selection.  Ranger fans should root for Colorado to win.

The Dallas loss means the Rangers lost their chance to have three first round picks for the second straight year.  Still, they will have five first round picks over two years.  It took eight years before last June for the Rangers to accumulate five first round picks.

Mats Zuccarello did his part to try to get the Rangers that first round pick, scoring the only Dallas goal, but it wasn’t enough as St. Louis continues their impressive playoff run.  Don’t forget that if Zuccarello re-signs with Dallas, the 2020 third round pick the Rangers got from Dallas becomes a first round pick.

All of the picks

The Rangers will end up with nine total draft picks including two first rounders.  The Blueshirts traded their own second, fourth and seventh round picks in deals involving Adam Fox and Adam McQuaid (from Boston and to Columbus).

1. # 2 (First round) – The Rangers will have the second overall pick in the first round as a result of moving up in the draft lottery.
2. # 19 or # 20 (First round) –  Acquired from Winnipeg for Kevin Hayes
3. # 47 or # 48 (Second round)  – Acquired from Dallas for Mats Zuccarello
4. # 58  (Second round) – Acquired from Tampa for Ryan McDonagh and J.T. Miller
5. # 68  (Third round) – Rangers pick
6. # 112 (Fourth round) – Acquired from Columbus for Adam McQuaid.
7. # 130 (Fifth round) – Rangers pick
8.  # 161 (Sixth round) – Rangers pick
9. # 205 (Seventh round ) – Acquired from Columbus for Adam McQuaid.

The consequences

There had been some chatter about the Rangers potentially trading some picks and assets to try to move up and get a second top ten draft pick.  Without that third first round pick, the Rangers lose a valuable trade chip.

The odds of a team trading a top ten pick are slim as it has been happening less frequently than in the past. In the first ten years after the salary cap was introduced in 2005, there were ten top ten picks traded mostly in deals right before the draft.   Since 2014, only one top ten selection has been dealt and that was when the Rangers acquired the seventh overall pick from Arizona in 2017.

It’s obvious that NHL general managers are placing a premium on those top ten picks who more often than not turn into a bona fide NHL player.  Quality players on entry level contracts are incredibly valuable in the current salary cap driven NHL.  In a deep draft like this one, for the Rangers to get a second top pick, it would take an offer loaded with some of the team’s top prospects and the odds of that happening are not great.

No matter what, the Rangers will be stockpiling more young talent in June.