Chris Kreider shines bright in New York Rangers history

New York Rangers history comes up short

When Kreider reached the 40 goal milestone, he joined a short list in New York Rangers history. Kreider became only the ninth New York Rangers draft pick to reach 40 goals in a season. This is a hard fact to digest, to realize that in the nearly 60 years the NHL has had a draft, the Rangers have selected so few players to reach this milestone.

We could go so far as to add four more players to this list as “original” Rangers. Players who began their career with the New York Rangers prior to the institution of the draft. The GAG line of Rod Gilbert, Vic Hadfield and Jean Ratelle all reached at least 40 goals, as did Andy Bathgate. Even still, this brings the total to 13. Still a low number by anyones estimation.

Perhaps worse still is the fact that even fewer reached the 40 goal plateau while in a New York Rangers sweater. In addition to the “original” Rangers list, Kreider is only the fifth Rangers draft pick to score forty for the Rangers. Before him, only Steve Vickers (41 in 1974-75), Pat Hickey (40 in 1977-78), Ron Duguay (40 in 1981-82) and Tomas Sandstrom (40 in 1985-86) had reached that mark.

Captain Kreider

With his 42nd goal Kreider, scored last night against the New Jersey Devils, he became the most prolific goal scorer among New York Rangers draft pick’s while in a Rangers uniform. Should his pace continue he is also set to score more goals than any Rangers draft pick, ever. Though he was with the Boston Bruins at the time, Rick Middleton set the bar for New York Rangers draft picks with 51 goals in 1981-82.