A tale of 15 Ranger rookies

See ya

John Gilmour – Gilmour was signed as an undrafted free agent after an excellent college career at Providence College.  After one full season with Hartford, he was called up the day after the rebuilding letter was sent and he spent the rest of the season in New York.

Blessed with blazing speed, he scored two goals and had five points in 28 games, but it wasn’t enough to impress David Quinn and he spent almost the entire last season in Hartford where he led the team’s defensemen in scoring.  He made it back to the Rangers for five games at the end of the season and last summer he signed as a free agent with Buffalo where he has spent most of the season in the AHL.

Daniel Catenacci – Who?  Catenacci was a center who played one game in late January 2018.  A Buffalo draft pick, he had played 11 games before being dealt to the Blueshirts for Mat Bodie.  That one game was his last NHL experience and he is toiling for the Bolzano Hockey Club in Austria.

Rob O’Gara –  O’Gara was acquired in the Nick Holden trade with the Bruins in February 2018., the last of the four prospects picked up in trades that month.  After playing 11 games in two seasons for Boston, he was given a full tryout by the Rangers after the trade, playing 22 games before the end of the season.

He obviously didn’t make much of an impression, playing last season in Hartford before being released over the summer.  He was last seen playing for Springfield in the AHL.

So, how are they doing?

Six success stories out of 15 rookies who played for the Rangers the last two seasons is a pretty good number.  Add Hajek and Howden to that mix and over half of the kids who had their Rangers debut over the last two seasons are on the road to solid NHL careers.

Then consider that Lindgren and Hajek are still rookies and add Adam Fox and Kaapo Kakko to that mix  and you have ten good young players.  Though Pionk is gone, the remaining nine could have long careers in Ranger jerseys.   It’s a good story to tell.

What is a rookie?

Just to clarify, here is the NHL official criteria for rookie status:  “To be considered a rookie, a player must not have played in more than 25 NHL games in any preceding seasons, nor in six or more NHL games in each of any two preceding seasons. Any player at least 26 years of age (by September 15th of that season) is not considered a rookie.”