New York Rangers: How the prospects are doing

While the New York Rangers’ season sputters along with extended breaks, the players in the best prospect pool in the NHL were in action.

Many hockey observers proclaimed that the New York Rangers have the best farm system in the NHL.  Most of the Rangers’ top prospects have started their seasons and it’s worth taking a look at how they are doing.

Hartford Wolf Pack

To the consternation of many, some of the best prospects in the Rangers’ pipeline started their season  with the Hartford Wolf Pack instead of New York .  The Pack have a similar schedule to the Rangers, playing only on the weekends , but  even so they’ve played  four games, one more than the Blueshirts.

Hartford won it’s first three games, but fell in the fourth, blowing a 2-0 lead and losing in a shootout.  The good news is that Filip Chytil is playing very well, centering the team’s top line.  He has two goals and three assists, good for five points, second highest in the AHL.  He is not reluctant to shoot with 14 shots on goal, a number that will make David Quinn happy.

Take a look at this goal scored by Chytil.  He takes a big hit at the blue line, but gets the puck forward for a Danny O’Regan shot and follows up by going to the net and scoring off the rebound.

Vitali Kravtsov  got on the scoreboard with an assist on a Boo Nieves goal.  Kravtsov  has played both games after being scratched in the team’s second game.

Danny O’Regan has five points on the season to share the team lead with Chytil.  Defenseman Joey Keane leads all Wolf Pack rookies with two goals.

No other Pack players stand out statistically, but they have gotten contributions from all of the top prospects

The Rangers brain trust will be paying close attention to the goalie tandem of Igor Shesterkin and Adam Huska.  So far, they are splitting the goaltending duties evenly with both netminders starting two games each.  Shesterkin has a 2.00 Goals Against Average and a .915 Save Percentage.  Huska’s numbers are close with a 2.37 GAA and a .911 Save Percentage.

CHL

Matthew Robertson (2019-2nd round) just signed  his Entry Level Contract while he is toiling for the Edmonton Oil Kings in the WHL.   The big defenseman has gotten off to a good start with a goal and three assists in six games. The word out of Edmonton is that the Rangers prospect has lifted his offensive game to new levels.  Here’s the description of Robertson’s goal from the Oil Kings’ website:  “The lone goal of the opening period came on the stick of defenceman Matthew Robertson, who looked more like a star forward on the play.”

Swiss-born Nico Gross (2018-4th round) is in his third season with the Oshawa Generals of the OHL.  He played in the NHL Prospects Tournament in Traverse City and was on the Swiss team at the World Junior Championships earlier this year and is expected to be a team leader next year.  The team faces a decision with Gross as their rights to him will expire if he is not under contract by June 1 of next year.

A shutdown defenseman, Gross has shown little offensive ability with seven goals and 34 points in 134 games the last two seasons, but this year that has changed. He is scoring at a point a game pace with four goals and five assists in nine games including a hat trick on October 4 against the North Bay Battalion.

He added another goal this weekend against Sudbury as Oshawa leads the OHL with a 9-0 record.

Hunter Skinner (2019-4th round) is yet another defenseman in the Rangers system.  He is off to a solid start with the London Knights of the OHL.   He has two goals and five assists in seven games.  The 18-year old is in his first year in the OHL after two seasons in the USHL.

Tomorrow, we’ll take a look at Rangers prospects playing in Europe.

One important thing to remember is that there is a lack of context when it comes to the performance of these players.  While statistics are readily available, there is little information regarding the quality of competition, ice time and other factors.  This update is based on available statistics and accounts of the games and their play.