Rangers’ NCAA prospects weekend action roundup

The New  York Rangers have seven prospects playing in the NCAA.  Here’s a recap of a busy weekend in college hockey.

The unpredictable nature of the NHL Entry Draft is readily apparent if you look at the players the New York Rangers have drafted and how they are doing.  You have a first round draft pick who is living up to his billing and mid level draft picks who are exceeding expectations and late round picks who are blossoming into potential stars.

K’Andre Miller  (D) – 2018 1st round – #18

#15 Wisconsin split a big two game weekend series with #4 Notre Dame in Madison.  Wisconsin won the first game 3-0, but dropped the second game 5-4 in overtime.  It was a good three point weekend for Ranger draft pick defenseman  K’Andre Miller.

He had two assists in the first game, one on the power play.  In the second game he scored the go ahead goal in the third period, also on the power play.

Miller now has four goals and seven points in 12 games for the disappointing Badgers who dropped to 6-6 overall and 1-3 in the Big Ten.

Morgan Barron (C) – 2017 6th round – #174

Undefeated Cornell (6-0) swept their two weekend games.  On Friday night Cornell had a big 4-2 win over #7 Clarkson.  Top Ranger prospect  Morgan Barron assisted on the first Cornell goal.

Saturday night, in a 6-1 win over St. Lawrence, Barron opened the scoring 3:36 into the first period.  He finished with one goal on four shots.

Barron is on fire, with six goals and 12 points in six games.  He was already named player of the week in the ECAC once this young season.  Expect the junior to possibly turn pro after this season.

Tyler Wall (G) – 2016 6th round – #174

In Hockey East action, UMass-Lowell had a tough weekend with two games against UConn.  The first game went to overtime and ended in a 3-3 tie.  Saturday night, the Huskies prevailed in a 2-1 win.  Ranger goalie prospect Tyler Wall was in net for both games.  He allowed one even strength goal on Friday and two more on Saturday while registering 55 saves in the two games for the River Hawks.

UMass-Lowell remains in first place in the Hockey East with a conference record of 4-1-3 (7-3-4 overall) and Wall is the biggest reason.  He  has won Hockey East Defensive Player of the Week three weeks running.

Zac Jones (D) – 2019  3rd round – #68

Also in the Hockey East, Massachusetts split a two game series with Boston University.  Friday, the Minutemen lost to BU by a 4-3 score on the road.  They won the second game at home, 4-1.

Rangers defense prospect Zac Jones had two points in the games.  In Friday’s match he scored the last of three third period goals by Massachusetts  as they tried to comeback and had five shots on net.  Saturday he assisted on their first goal on the power play.

The  defenseman is the second leading scorer on the Minutemen with three goals and 11 points in 10 games.  He is leading all freshmen defensemen in scoring and is third among all blueliners in scoring in the conference.  Jones could be a mid round gem.

Riley Hughes (F) – 2018 7th round – #216

There is one more Ranger prospect playing in the Hockey East.  Forward Riley Hughes is a freshman at Northeastern University.  He was scoreless as NEU split a two game weekend series with Providence.  Hughes scored in his second game of the season and hasn’t had another point since.

Hughes is on the slight side at 6’1″, 174 pounds and while he is not scoring, he is playing regularly fore the Huskies.  Northeastern has a 4-3-1 record in the Hockey East Conference.

Eric Ciccolini (RW) – 2019 7th round – #205

Ranger draft pick Eric Ciccolini  is a Michigan freshman. The Wolverines dropped two games to Michigan State by the scores of 4-3 and 4-0 and are winless in the Big Ten at 0-5-1.  The 18-year old right wing has four assists in 12 games this season.

Ciccolini has a solid upside.  Going into the 2019 draft he had been ranked as high as #79 by Hockeyprospects.com, but slipped to the seventh round.  After notching three points in his first four games, he has slowed down a bit.

Simon Kjellberg (D)  – 2018 6th round – #163

Rensselaer had a difficult weekend with a 2-2 tie with Princeton on Friday and a 3-1 loss to Quinnipiac on Saturday.   Ranger prospect Simon Kjellberg had an unassisted first period goal against Princeton and was scoreless in the second game.

RPI dropped to 2-3-1 in the conference (4-5-1 overall).   Kjellberg is a freshman defenseman and has three goals and five points in nine games.  Those three goals are second most among defensemen in the ECAC Conference and are the most among freshman blueliners.

This is the Swede’s second season in North America and he is considered to be a candidate for Sweden’s U20 national team at the World Junior Championships.

The Rangers have a decent mix of prospects playing college hockey. Miller, Barron and Wall are the closest to turning pro with the remaining four all in their first year at their respective colleges.