New York Rangers: Ranking the likelihood of moving top prospects
Looking at the draft picks
If we consider the last three years of draft picks, you could almost all together throw out 2016. The Rangers had the 81st overall pick (third round) and 141st overall (fifth round) and selected Sean Day and Tim Gettinger, respectively.
While Day and Gettinger have played well in Hartford (and Gettinger played well in his four games with the Rangers), the picks in the last two years are likely to have a much higher ceiling solely based on when they were selected and what they have shown in the short time after their acquisition. But there are plenty of picks from these rounds who have had extremely successful careers.
But in considering the drafts in the last two years, the Rangers had two first round picks (then didn’t pick until the fourth round) in 2017 for the first time since 2004. The 7th overall pick was the highest selection the Rangers made since 1998 and was the first first round pick since they selected Brady Skjei 28th overall in 2012.
With this top selection, they picked Lias Andersson then followed by Filip Chytil at pick 21.
The 2018 draft was groundbreaking for the Rangers. They had 10 picks in total in the draft (the most since their 12 picks in 2004) and had the three first round picks ( one which they traded up for) for the first time in franchise history.
These picks brought Vitali Kravtsov (pick nine), K’Andre Miller (pick 22) and Nils Lundkvist (pick 28) to the team.
In addition they had a second round pick (pick 39) and selected goaltender Olof Lindbom and two third round picks (70 and 88) where they selected Jacob Ragnarsson and Joey Keane, respectively. The Rangers also signed fourth round pick Tarmo Reunanen to an entry level contract on June 5.
What is most interesting about these picks in 2018 is that all but Kravtsov and Lindbom are defensemen. Perhaps with what they had at the time, and after the selection of Andersson and Chytil in 2017, the Rangers felt they needed to focus on their weakest area — their defense.
This is great, but now with the addition of other young prospects via trade things start to get a little more complicated.