Who should the New York Rangers target with Carolina’s first round pick?

The New York Rangers have the opportunity to make two selections in the first round of a deep NHL draft. Who should they target?

Well, the Carolina Hurricanes, who swept our beloved New York Rangers during the play-in round, have been eliminated by the Boston Bruins. Despite New York’s disdain for Boston sports, this is actually good news for us Rangers fans as it means that the first-round selection we acquired in the Skjei trade will end up being in the 20-24 pick range.

While there is certainly a possibility that the pick could be moved to acquire some NHL-ready talent, such as a center or a left-shot defenseman, it seems far more likely that Gorton will make the pick. During his video conference after winning the draft lottery, he explicitly said he was excited to have two first-rounders in what he described as a “deep draft.” So let’s work on that assumption.

And it should be mentioned that I agree with Gorton’s assessment, as this is a very special draft class that has had players break a number of league scoring records. The top of the draft is very strong, but the draft is also quite deep. It is also unusual in the sense that a lot of the talent in the first round will be coming from the CHL, which is a league the Rangers have avoided for quite some time when picking in the first round. For context, the last Rangers first-round pick who played their draft year in the CHL was Dylan McIlrath in 2010.

Avoiding the CHL talent pool seems very ill-advised this time around. With the inevitable selection of Alexis Lafrenière at first overall, are the floodgates set to open, bringing more Canadian-grown talent to New York? Let’s dive in and figure out who the Rangers should target.