There is justifiable optimism surrounding the New York Rangers in 2026-27. The club has made strides to improve the lineup. The moves, however, don’t seem to be substantial enough to make a material impact on the team’s overall outlook this upcoming season.
Now, there’s an early projection that could serve as a sort of canary in the coalmine.
The folks at Tankathon have calculated a projection for the 2027 NHL Draft selection order. The projection places the Rangers selecting 11th overall.
11th overall?
That placement signals the Rangers are nowhere near making the playoffs. They’ll still be quite far away from locking down a postseason berth. But they won’t be nearly bad enough to land a top-five pick.
That’s no bueno, as it could mean the Blueshirts are entering mushy middle territory. While this placement may seem ludicrous considering the amount of talent on the team, it’s actually not out of the question.
Let’s look at why it could actually make sense.
Rangers might not get enough scoring
The biggest reason why the Rangers may end up picking just outside the top 10 next year could well be a lack of scoring.
The Rangers did well to add Pavel Dorofeyev, but they didn’t add very much else. Alexis Lafrenière is still a bit of a question mark. J.T. Miller looks to be trending downward, and Mika Zibanejad won’t score 40 goals and 100 points.
Another free-agent addition, Oliver Bjorkstrand, will need to chip in 30 or 40 goals to have a significant impact on the Rangers this upcoming season.
While the blue line looks to be better defensively, it won’t feature a true high-end scoring defenseman, Adam Fox notwithstanding.
If the Rangers can’t get enough scoring, even with an improved defense, they’ll struggle to win games. That situation could lead to an overreliance on key piece.
Club can’t rely on Igor Shesterkin to steal every game
If the Rangers can’t get enough scoring, the temptation may be there to rely on Igor Shesterkin stealing games.
Yes, Shesterkin can do it. He’s actually done it many times before.
But as we all saw last season, hoping that Shesterkin can will the Rangers into a playoff spot isn’t the best strategy.
Even if Shesterkin was lights-out all season long, would that be enough to overcome the team’s scoring shortcomings? Would it be possible to consistently win 2-1 games throughout the season?
The Rangers need to get as much scoring as they can. They’ll need to follow that up with solid defense and cap it off with great goaltending. If all of those things can come together, the Rangers have a shot at proving the algorithms wrong.
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