The best and worst draft classes of the 1980s
Honorable mention: 1981
Standouts
James Patrick (1st round, 9th overall, defense)
Jan Erixon (2nd round, 30th overall, forward)
John Vanbiesbrouck (4th round, 72nd overall, goalie)
Analysis
Erixon spent all of his 10 NHL seasons with the Rangers, finishing with a modest 57 goals and 159 helpers for 216 points. However, his play without the puck was a tremendous asset to the team. In fact, Erixon was among the top 10 in voting for the Selke Trophy as the league’s best defensive forward five times.
Patrick finished his NHL career with 149 goals and 490 assists for 639 points in 1,280 games.
Prior to being traded, Patrick notched 104 goals and 363 assists for 467 points in 671 games for New York. He’s third among all-time Rangers’ defensemen in goals, assists and points (behind Leetch and Ron Greschner in each category).
During his 11 seasons with the Blueshirts, “Beezer” won the Vezina (1986), was a two-time all-star, finished third in voting for the Hart (’86), and posted a 3.45 goals-against average, .890 save percentage and 16 shutouts. He ranks fifth among all-time Rangers goalies in wins (200), appearances (449) and saves (11,733).
On June 20, 1993, knowing that they would lose him in the expansion draft, the Rangers traded him to Vancouver for future considerations. The Canucks needed a goalie to expose in the draft so they could keep Kirk McLean. Sure enough, Vanbiesbrouck was selected in the expansion draft by the Florida Panthers.
With “Beezer” as their No. 1 goalie, the Panthers won the Eastern Conference in 1996 before getting swept by the Colorado Avalanche in the Finals, with Game 4’s only goal coming in triple overtime.
As for the future considerations, the Rangers received defenseman Doug Lidster, who brought poise and stability to New York’s blueline in 1993-94.
Honorable mention: 1982
Standouts
Tomas Sandstrom (2nd round, 36th overall, forward)
Tony Granato (6th round, 120th overall, forward)
Notables
Chris Kontos (1st round, 15th overall, forward)
Corey Millen (3rd round, 57th overall, forward)
Kelly Miller (9th round, 183rd overall, forward)
Analysis
This draft class easily would qualify among the Rangers’ worst if the only consideration was the first round. That Kontos posted just 28 points in 78 games in three seasons with the Rangers is bad enough.
But with the next pick, Buffalo took Dave Andreychuk. “All” the 6-foot-4, 220-pound winger did was notch 640 goals and 1,338 points in 1,639 matches, win a Stanley Cup (with Tampa Bay) and get elected to the Hall of Fame.
The Rangers atoned by finding Granato and Sandstrom. Granato set Rangers’ rookie-season records for goals (36), short-handed goals (4) and hat tricks (3) in 1989, while Sandstrom posted 380 points (207 assists) in 407 games for New York.
Both would (indirectly) lead to Mark Messier and Jeff Beukeboom becoming Rangers.
On January 20, 1990, Granato and Sandstrom were traded to Los Angeles for Bernie Nicholls.
“Broadway Bernie” starred with 110 points in 104 appearances for New York. However, his biggest value to the Rangers was as the centerpiece to an October 4, 1991 trade with Edmonton that brought Messier and (later) Beukeboom to New York.
As good as the picks of Granato and Sandstrom proved, another choice would come back to haunt the Rangers later in the decade.
That would be forward Kelly Miller (183rd overall), who in January 1987 was packaged with Bob Crawford and Mike Ridley in a trade to Washington for Bobby Carpenter and a third-rounder in 1989.
That remains one of the worst trades in Rangers history.
The Caps got 162 goals and 408 points in 940 games out of Miller, and 218 goals and 547 points in 588 matches from Ridley.
Carpenter had two goals and 10 points in 28 games for the Rangers, while the pick became winger Jason Prosofsky, who never made the NHL.
After Carpenter’s disastrous start in New York, general manager Phil Esposito packaged him with Tom Laidlaw in a trade to Los Angeles for future Hall of Famer Marcel Dionne and defenseman Jeff Crossman.
Dionne was well past his prime and had only one good year with the Blueshirts, and Crossman failed to play a single NHL shift.
Honorable mention: 1984
Standout
Kjell Samuelsson (6th round, 119th overall, defense)
Notables
Terry Carkner (1st round, 14th overall, defense)
Paul Broten (4th round, 77th overall, forward)
Analysis
Carkner amassed 118 penalty minutes in 52 games with the Blueshirts, then was traded with forward Jeff Jackson to the Quebec Nordiques for forward John Ogrodnick and blueliner David Shaw.
Shaw had 314 penalty minutes and 74 points in 240 games for the Rangers, before getting traded in November 1991 to Edmonton for Beukeboom to complete the Messier deal.
Ogrodnick spent five seasons on Broadway, posting 122 goals and 254 points, including 22 game-winning markers.
His best season for the Rangers was in 1990, when he produced 43 goals and 74 points, including 19 power-play tallies and eight game-winners. He scored 31 goals in 1990-91 and 17 in the 1991-92 season, the year before he signed with Detroit.
The Rangers squandered the 35th overall selection on forward Raimo Helminen (three NHL seasons).
Broten is the youngest of his three siblings to play in the NHL (and the least productive, with 101 career points). Oldest-brother, Neal, had 923 points, and two goals for Team U.S.A. in the 1980 Olympic Games. “Middle” brother, Aaron, had 515 NHL points.
Samuelsson spent two seasons with the Rangers before getting traded to the Philadelphia Flyers for pedestrian goaltender Bob Froese.
Known as the “human tripod” given his 6-foot-6, 235-pound frame, Samuelsson spent nine of his 14 NHL seasons with the Flyers, for whom he had 141 points and 815 penalty minutes. Froese had a 36-43-8 record, 3.64 goals-against average and .876 percentage for New York.
New York took forward Clark Donatelli at 98th overall, while Calgary got Future Hall of Famer Brett Hull at No. 117. That could be excused, considering the Flames didn’t think enough of Hull to warrant keeping him around long, and dealt him to St. Louis in 1988.
However, what is inexcusable is the Rangers’ selections of forwards Tom Hussey at 140th overall and Brian Nelson at No. 161. Neither made the NHL. Meantime, Los Angeles used the 171st overall pick to draft Future Hall of Famer Luc Robitaille.
“Lucky Luc” won the Calder in 1987 and finished his 19-year career with 1,394 points and 668 goals.
He eventually played for the Rangers, acquired along with Ulf Samuelsson from Pittsburgh for Petr Nedved and Sergei Zubov in August 1995.
The deal was not well-received by many Rangers fans,
Zubov was a fan favorite, who dazzled in the ’94 postseason. Nedved was five years younger than Robitaille.
Combined with what turned out to be a major discrepancy in production, in Nedved’s favor, Robitaille was pretty much run off Broadway. He finished his two-year stint with the Blueshirts with 47 goals and 70 assists.
During the same span, Nedved put up 78 goals and 92 assists. (Nedved returned to the Rangers in 1998.)
Despite all of that, this class gets marks for turning Carkner into Ogrodnick, and Shaw into Beukeboom.