5 Rangers prospects are attending the World Juniors

It was said for many years that the New York Rangers had one of the brightest futures in the NHL. As that future is starting to transition into the present, there is a further future on the horizon. The next generation of the New York Rangers is starting to come into focus with the spotlight shifting to the next group. Five Rangers prospects will be at the World Junior Championships to show off that they are some of the best young talents in the world.

With prospects representing Canada, Slovakia, the United States of America, Czechia, and Finland, Ranger fans and the Blueshirts front office will get to see their talents and possessions at the highest level of juniors. The best of the best will be at this competition from this age group and will be able to show their talent to the watching hockey world. This is the first time they will see some of the prospects from other leagues, and it’ll be a great test for the kids.

It should be noted that due to the ongoing war between Ukraine and Russia, the IIHF will not allow Russia to take part in any international events for the foreseeable future. Russia will not be icing a team at this World Juniors event, so there will be prospects that are Russian that may have taken part in this event under different circumstances but are just not eligible to take part due to these restrictions.

Ahead of the NHL’s trade deadline, these prospects will be important for New York to show off their capabilities. If they can play well and push up their trade values, it will mean that the Rangers could use these prospects as trade bait to land a player that could help at the deadline if they wanted to make a push for the Stanley Cup playoffs. Alternatively, performing well here will give them a boost to their development and make the Rangers’ future better.

Adam Sykora

Viewed as one of the best defensive forward prospects around the NHL right now, Slovakia’s Adam Sykora has to be one of the headliners of this Slovakia group. With all sorts of possibilities surrounding the 2022 2nd-round draft pick of the Blueshirts, there are interesting developments with this player in more ways than you might think. He’s got a lot of rumors surrounding him and he could show why he is so highly touted with a strong performance here.

Sykora has been the subject of all sorts of rumors recently. With the player currently representing HK Nitra in his native Slovakia, the New York Rangers are interested in bringing this player across from Europe to get some experience on the bigger ice surface. While that may seem simple, there is a lot more to it than meets the eye. Sykora is enjoying some success in Slovakia and doesn’t want to join a bad team in Canadian Juniors.

His rights currently belong to the Medicine Hat Tigers who drafted Sykora with the 1st overall pick in the 2022 CHL import draft. Jeff Marek of Sportsnet reported that there is a potential trade in place to move Sykora from Medicine Hat to the Saskatoon Blades, who are one of the better teams in the WHL’s Eastern Conference. While nothing is concrete, the idea that he could be moved may open up the door to his North American entrance.

Sykora will be the player a lot of people will be wanting to see when Slovakia takes to the ice. He’s going to have the chance to steal a lot of the headlines in the games he plays. If he can show that he was worth that first-overall pick in the CHL Import Draft, there’s a good chance Ranger fans will be able to see this player in the WHL later this year. This is a big chance for the 18-year-old forward.

Jaroslav Chmelar

Moving onto the second forward from continental Europe, we get to Czech winger Jaroslav Chmelar. Picked in the fifth round of the 2021 NHL entry, Chmelar is a big winger that can play both sides. There’s a lot to like about him and he is going to be a (literally) big player for the Czech team this year.  It’s going to be difficult to miss this player as he is not exactly going to blend in during a melee.

Chmelar had been applying his trade in Finland before this season when he started going to Providence College and has since taken up a role in the Friars squad. While Chmelar doesn’t exactly have a ton of offensive scoring in his repertoire, he’s still been a nice player for Providence in his first full season on North American ice. He’s not had a bad season by any stretch of the imagination but he’s not setting the NCAA alight.

In 18 games he has six goals and four assists for ten points. Nothing to turn your nose up at but he’s not going to blow the doors off offensively. There are firmly not going to be any Hobey Baker discussions surrounding this player because there just isn’t the production that there has been with other candidates and past winners. He’s fine, but not special.

Czechia will have a ton of players to watch that are more highly touted, but there is going to be that extra reason for Ranger fans to tune into the games of the Eastern European nation. There’s a ton of room to grow for Chmelar moving forward and this is a tournament for him to put his skill set on display for the watching hockey world.

Noah Laba

New York’s only American prospect at this event is going to be one of the healthy extras for the United States. Laba is on the American roster for this event. With the 111th overall pick of the 2022 NHL entry draft attending the American camp, there will be a good ol’ American kid to root for. Though he’s not exactly a New York local being from Northville, Michigan, he is representing the Red, White, and Blue.

Laba is not one of the household names of the prospect pool of the Blueshirts. He’s a solid prospect, but he’s not held in the highest regard within the fanbase because he arguably doesn’t have the upside that some of the other prospects in the system do. With the Rangers’ fourth-rounder making the USA team, there will be a chance for him to potentially impress the watching fan base.

At 6’2, 190 lbs, Laba is a prospect with size and those always make for fun players to watch. Undersized players can have ups and downs but there will always be a role in a lineup for a big-body player like Laba, even when he isn’t perhaps the most talented kid in the locker room. This isn’t to say that there isn’t skill and talent to how Laba plays, just that he’ll always have that swiss army knife option.

Going to the World Juniors for the United States is not something that every player gets to do, and Laba will get to represent the USA. If he gets into games, it’s going to be worth watching him but do not expect him to be a regular in the US team lineup. He’s been listed as one of the healthy extras for the tournament but you never know how things like this go. All it takes is a single Covid outbreak.

Kalle Vaisanen

Kalle Vaisanen is another big-body forward and the Finnish left-winger has some pedigree. Despite having just 3 goals in 27 games this season in Liiga in Finland, Vaisanen has proven to a lot of TPS fans that he is more than willing to go and fight for the team he is playing on and put himself in situations that some other players may be afraid to get involved in. He’s the kind of player that earns his place.

Vaisanen’s production is not an indication of his talent. He’s not the most natural passer, and his shot isn’t special. He’ll get most of his goals from the garbage spots around the front of the net. Just because he doesn’t snipe like some of the other prospects in the tournament might do, it doesn’t mean that this isn’t a player that will be a disappointment at this tournament.

Finland’s 6’4, 190 lbs, forward is going to be in the tough stuff and battles all over the ice. He’s tenacious and he’s willing to go and fight for the logo on the front of his jersey, rather than the name on the back like some of the other players in the world. Vaisanen is not going to be a player that you will be able to miss. First of all, he is like a moving tree, but he is going to be visible.

With the fourth of the Ranger prospects that we have talked about so far, it’s worth tuning into the Finland games when you have spare time. This is one of the prospects at the tournament with a good chance of drastically increasing his value and no longer being viewed as a spare thought when we talk about the Rangers’ pipeline and future prospects.