What’s the future for Ty Ronning?

New York Rangers prospect Ty Ronning just finished his first professional season. How did he do and what does it mean for his future as a Blueshirt?

When the New York Rangers drafted Ty Ronning in the seventh round of the 2016 NHL Entry Draft, the selection was met with low expectations. He was all of 5’9″ and 176 pounds, small by NHL standards and he had been a decent player in the WHL.  Ronning followed up with a spectacular season 61-goal season as an overage player with the Vancouver Giants and the hope was that they had found a diamond in the rough.

Ronning’s first pro season didn’t start as well as he might have hoped.  He played in his third straight Traverse City prospects tournament and came to training camp with high expectations. Instead, he was one of the first cuts in camp, not seeing action in any preseason games.

His minor league season

Ty Ronning was sent to Hartford where he spent the first six weeks of the AHL season. The right wing was a scratch in 11 of the first 19 games and in the eight games he played he scored one goal, his only point.  He did take 12 shots and was a minus two.   After he sat out seven games in a nine game stretch, he was sent to the Rangers ECHL affiliate, the Maine Mariners.

It turned out to be a wise move for the youngster as he found ample playing time in Maine and his scoring picked up.  In 22 games with Maine, he had 19 points on 10 goals and nine assists.  He had an immediate impact when he arrived in the ECHL. In the third period of a game against Manchester, he registered a hat trick and added two assists to lead the team to 6-4 win.

Ronning was a top scorer for Maine until suffering a lower body injury in mid-January that kept him out of action for almost a month.  Once he was healthy, he was recalled to Hartford.  Once recalled, he played in 15 of 17 games scoring three goals and adding one assist.

When the Wolf Pack signed a number of players to professional tryouts in April, they sent Ronning back to Maine where he finished the season scoring two goals and three points in three games.

Ronning’s final AHL numbers were four goals and five points in 23 games.  In the ECHL he had 12 goals and 22 points in 25 games.

Expectations for 2019-20

Although Ronning  scored 61 goals in 70 games and added 23 assists for 84 points in his final year in Junior hockey, it’s no guarantee that he will be a success in the pros.  In the last decade only four players have scored as many goals as Ronning did in his last season.   Their names?  Jayden Halbgewachs, Oliver Bjorkstrand, Mitch Holmberg and Emerson Etem.

Of the five players, only Bjorkstrand has developed into an NHL regular, scoring 23 goals for Columbus last season and it took him three years from his big WHL season to get there.

Halbgewachs is still a prospect in the Sharks system.   Holmberg is out of hockey after playing for six minor league teams.  Ranger fans would rather forget about Etem who was a Ranger washout.

Ronning will compete for a starting job in Hartford this season.  Whether he sees any pre-season action for the Rangers is still a question and the Traverse City roster hasn’t been announced yet.  One factor in his favor is that the Rangers’ organizational depth at forward is still lacking so he should get a real chance to impress in the AHL.

One has to hope that some of Ronning’s problems in Hartford were due to leadership.  The issues the Wolf Pack had with their coaching staff are well documented and there are some observers who believe that Ronning wasn’t utilized properly. With a new coach in Kris Knoblauch and two more years left on his entry level contract, Ty Ronning will have another chance to prove himself.

The son of former NHLer Cliff Ronning turns 22 in October, so he is still young, but if he ends up in Maine again, it could mean the end of Ty Ronning as a legitimate Ranger prospect.  With a great reputation for his efforts off the ice and the fact that he has had to battle bias against his size, one can only hope that we will see him on the Garden ice in the future.