New York Rangers: The European connections

The New York Rangers have a vast collection of European prospects within the organization with some previous compatriot familiarity.

With a young team like the Rangers are now, struggles with confidence are bound to occur. The transition between teams and leagues within one’s native country alone can be daunting but playing in a different continent raises the stakes.

Ironically enough, a handful of the players within the Rangers organization have been teammates or were familiar with each other before being drafted by the same NHL team. Being with familiar faces means that players might have an easier time adjusting to their new home and their new team.

The vision for the Rangers is to be able to compete soon for a Stanley Cup, which is added pressure on the young team to become more cohesive during a quicker timeline.

As a former college hockey coach, current Rangers head coach David Quinn has been praised for his talent for helping develop young hockey players, he will not make excuses for younger players. As a result, his coaching style does require each player to be held accountable and does not shy away from benching specific players.

To make tensions higher, the organization is loaded with talent leaving almost every position replaceable with an equally skilled option.

This is a result of the Rangers organization recently completing a phase of rebuilding and thus acquired a slew of draft picks. A noticeable amount of these picks are European—specifically Swedish with some Finnish natives as well. Here are the connections between some of the players in the pipeline.