New York Rangers Prospect Profile: Matthew Rempe

With the  New York Rangers having one of the more promising prospect pools, there are a lot of prospects the Rangers have that get a lot of deserved attention due to their high potential and really good pure talents. However, not every prospect is judged on their future top-six potential and how potent they could be in the NHL. Some are judged on other parts of their game, and the perfect example of that for me is Matthew Rempe.

Matthew Rempe is a good prospect to have in the organization, but people are not worried about his production. Rempe put up 17 goals and 6 helpers in 56  games for the Seattle Thunderbirds of the WHL. Half a point a game is not bad by any means, so you may be asking why you shouldn’t be bothered by his production so much as some of the other things he does well. That’s a very good question.

Rempe is 6’7, 210 lbs. You can teach a guy what to do and where to be in order to produce but you cannot teach him to be the size of a refrigerator.  That is very much the case with Rempe. He’s nothing special in terms of his production, but there’s a lot to his game that you like to see. He’s not just a big-body centerman capable of smacking anything that moves, he is a genuinely good hockey player too.

Rempe is smart in all three zones. He’s not blessed with the elite shot some players have, but he knows how to be a net-front guy. At 6’7, there aren’t many netminders that will be capable of looking around him, so if he can make sure his ability to tip pucks is right up there, this is a player that is going to have a future in the NHL off that alone, but he is far from a one-trick pony.

Defensively, Rempe knows what to do with his positioning. He’s smart enough to know what he needs to do to help his team keep the puck out of their net. Rempe isn’t a likely Selke candidate, but there’s a lot to like in this prospect. There’s nothing he cannot do, and he is the size of a truck at this point in his career. While the future is never assured, there is a lot to like with a player of his ilk.