Why this season resembles the 1988-90 New York Rangers
By Jim Madden
The New York Rangers enter this season with a highly rated group of young players reminding many of the 1988-90 Rangers.
As the team announced its intent to rebuild in 2017, the ESPN’s Corey Pronman rated the New York Rangers prospect pipeline 29th out of the NHL’s 31 teams. The challenge for General Manager Jeff Gorton was to stockpile draft picks and prospects as he traded away the team’s veterans over the past few seasons. It’s no surprise the Ranger organization reflects a massive turnover of players since Gorton’s rebuild began however it’s a huge surprise that the quality of the organization prospect depth has risen so quickly.
The NHL Network recently aired a show in which they ranked the NHL’s top 100 prospects as well as the teams with the top ten prospect pipelines. The New York Rangers prospect pipeline was ranked #1 in the NHL and had the most prospects in the top 51 with Kappo Kakko, Vitali Kravtsov, Adam Fox, Igor Shesterkin and K’Andre Miller among the tops in the league.
It’s been decades since the Rangers boasted such a highly rated farm system. With this many rookies looking to crack the Rangers lineup it reminds us of the1988-90 Rangers under GM Phil Esposito and Coach Michel Bergeron. Esposito earned the name Trader Phil with the number of deals he completed but he doesn’t quite get the credit for the strong draft record during his tenure.