On June 26 in Rangers history: A draft day disaster

What happened on June 26 in the history of the New York Rangers

On this date in 1999, New York Rangers General Manager Neil Smith rolled the dice and traded for two high draft picks in an effort to jump start a rebuild of the franchise.  He made trades for the fourth and ninth overall picks and unbelievably, both of those picks were busts.

In his biggest deal, Smith traded goalie Dan Cloutier, forward Niklas Sundstrom as well as their first and third round picks in the 2000 draft for the fourth overall pick.  With that pick they drafted Czech right winger Pavel Brendl who had scored 73 goals and 134 points in 68 games for the Calgary Hitmen of the WHL.   That season turned out to be the high point of Brendl’s career and he never played a game for the Rangers.  They later included him in the trade that netted the Blueshirts Eric LIndros.

Cloutier never made it in Tampa, but he did play three years in Vancouver as their number on e goalie. Tampa traded Sundstrom to San Jose and he went to play seven years for the Sharks and Canadiens.

In the other trade, they swapped forward Marc Savard and their own 11th overall pick to Calgary  to move up to ninth so they could draft forward Jamie Lundmark.  Lundmark did play two seasons for the Rangers and had a six year NHL career, but he never topped 10 goals in  season and he was out of the NHL at age 29.

Marc Savard had played two seasons in New York at the time of the trade and he played 12 more seasons. He became a top scorer in Atlanta and Boston with seasons of 97 and 96 points. His career was cut short when he suffered a concussion on a hit by Matt Cooke and then a second concussion on a hit from Matt Hunwick.

This was only the third time in franchise history that the Rangers had two first round picks and the only time that they had two picks in the top 10.    They ended up getting 11 goals and 19 assists from the two top picks.

Martin St. Louis to the Hall of Fame

On this date in 2018, Martin St. Louis learned he was to be inducted into the Hall of Fame. An undrafted college player, St. Louis was signed by Calgary, but became a star with the Tampa Bay Lightning. In 2004, when Tampa won the Stanley Cup, St. Louis won the Hart Memorial Trophy as well as the Ted Lindsay Award and the Art Ross scoring trophy.  He won a second Art Ross Trophy in 2013 and also won the Lady Byng Award three times.

St. Louis joined the Rangers at the deadline in 2014 and served as the inspiration for the Blueshirts’ drive to the Stanley Cup Final.

A former player becomes coach

On this date in 1950, the Rangers named Neil Colville their head coach.  Along with his brother, Mac, Neil Colville had starred for the team for 12 years until he retired in 1949.  One year later he was named the coach, at 36 the youngest coach in team history.

He lasted less than two years as coach, forced to step down midway through his second season due to health issues.  He ended up coaching the team for 93 games with a record of 26-41-26 and missing the playoffs in his only full season.

Today’s birthdays

14 NHL players have been born on June 26 with two former Rangers.

Kirk McLean was born on this date in 1966 in Willowdale, Ontario.  While he played two seasons for the Rangers at the tail end of his career, he is best known in New York for his play against the Rangers when he manned the net for the Vancouver Canucks in the 1994 Stanley Cup Final. In 1999 he was signed as a free agent by the Rangers and he appeared in 45 games over two seasons before retiring.

Cody McLeod was born on this date in 1984 in Binscarth, Manitoba.  McLeod played two seasons for the Rangers, serving the enforcer role for the team. Known for fisticuffs, he was an annual 100+ penalty minutes guy though he did score 15 goals in his second season with Colorado.