Ranking how well have the Rangers done in late rounds of the draft

The New York Rangers have 10 draft picks this year, seven after the second round

The New York Rangers winning the NHL Draft Lottery has dominated the headlines.  The Rangers have the first overall pick and a second first rounder at #22.  After they make those selections, they don’t have another pick until the third round and they have eight total picks over the last five rounds.

Late round picks are a roll of the dice.  The odds are that they won’t turn out, but when they do, it’s like a gift from the hockey gods.   The Rangers scored big time when they drafted Henrik Lundqvist as the 205th overall pick in the seventh round of the 2000 NHL Entry Draft. Arguably, that was the best late round pick in hockey history.

Some late draft trivia

• In franchise history, the Rangers have picked 416 players in the third round or later.
• Of those 416 players, 139 played at least one NHL game.   That’s 33%.
• 29 of 60 third round picks (48%) made it to the NHL.
• Interestingly, a higher percentage of fourth round picks made it to the NHL.  29 of 54 fourth round picks, or 54% made it.
• The NHL went to the current system of seven draft rounds in 2005
• The 1974 Amateur Draft had 25 rounds, the most in NHL history.
• The latest Ranger pick (by round) was Jim Warner who was picked in the 23rd round in 1974.  He signed instead with New Haven of the World Hockey Association (WHA) and later played 32 games with Hartford when the WHA merged with the NHL.
• The latest Ranger pick (by number) was Swedish defenseman Kim Johnsson who was selected 286th overall in the 11th round in 1994.  He played two seasons in New York before being traded to the Flyers in the Eric Lindros deal.  He played 739 NHL games,
• Since 1970, the fewest number of picks the Rangers have had in any one draft is four in 2012.
• The last time the Rangers had ten picks in the draft was in 2018.  Before that it was the 13 picks they had in 2004.
• The most players drafted by the Rangers in one year to make it to the NHL is 10 from the1978 draft.  All 10 players actually played for the Blueshirts.

Next up, a look the Rangers’ late round picks year by year with a rating of the top three in each round.  We’ll consider all of the drafts starting with the Amateur Draft of 1970.