The New York Rangers were the best team in the 2010s to not win a Stanley Cup, and had the brain trust made a better decision at the 2010 NHL Draft they could have been in a stronger position to win it all.
This week is all about the draft and prospects at NHL FanSided, and it allows us to look back on the past and explore "what if?" scenarios. The actions of then General Manager Glen Sather and Rangers' scouting guru Gordie Clark deserve a bit of reflection.
Who the Rangers picked at No. 10 overall
The Blueshirts got up to the podium at the Staples Center in Los Angeles and called the name of Dylan McIlrath, a hulking 6'5" and 240-pound defenseman who was endearingly referred to as "The Undertaker" because of his truculence and willingness to fight. It was a decision that shocked fans then, and still does to this day.
He was a throwback to the type of defenders who were popular in the 1990s and 2000s, and the type of prospect you'd be OK with landing much later on in the draft. But at 10th overall at a point in time in which the game had been phasing his type out of the league due to rule changes opening up the game after the 2004-05 lockout... sounds exactly like something Glen Sather would do.
McIlrath is still in the league, he's appeared in 92 total games across nine seasons, but only 38 of them came with the Rangers. In that time he scored just two goals and added two assists, averaged 13:28 a game, and skated only 511 minutes and 32 seconds. He skated in two games in 2013-14, the year the Rangers won the Eastern Conference, and this is just to point out that a player taken in that draft could have been in a position to contribute to that team, or the one that lost in the conference final a year later.
Who the Rangers could have picked
The Rangers could have gone in a few different directions at the 2010 draft, and if they were truly set on taking a defenseman, Cam Fowler would have been the obvious choice. Fowler went to the Anaheim Ducks at No. 12 overall, and in many ways he was tailor made for the Blueshirts.
At the time of the draft, Fowler was either 6'1" or 6"2 and between 190 and 210 pounds, and he had played for Team USA as part of the National Team Development program. He won gold as part of their U18 and U20 teams at the World Junior Championships, and was ready to make an NHL impact right away.
Fowler posted a line of 10-30-40 in 76 games as a 19-year-old rookie for the Ducks, and he averaged 22:08 per game. The following season saw him tally 29 points while averaging 23:16 per game. He had 11 points in 37 games during the lockout shortened season, and followed that up with 36 points in 70 games during the 2013-14 campaign.
During any given year with the Ducks, Fowler was good for at least 30 points, and in later years he had some availability issues due to injuries. But during his youthful prime years of 19 to 23... he would have been a perfect player to have on the left side along with Ryan McDonagh and Marc Staal.
Vladimir Tarasenko also could have became a Ranger much sooner
The other option of note that the Rangers could have consider at No. 10 is Vladimir Tarasenko, a player who would pull a Blueshirt sweater over his head 12 years later after being acquired near the deadline. He was selected by the St. Louis Blues at No. 16 overall, and he would have been a defensible pick at 10.
During the time period the Rangers were contending for the Stanley Cup, it always felt like they were a scorer short. For the 2011-12 season they had signed Brad Richards, they traded for Rick Nash before the 2012-13 season, and they had Marian Gáborík until he was traded at the deadline during the lockout shortened season.
Although Derick Brassard proved to be a valuable Ranger for a number of years, if Gáborík remained a Blueshirt he could have helped them, and he wouldn't have been able to hurt them as a member of the Los Angeles Kings.
That's where Tarasenko enters the picture, and he would have been a nice option to have in 2013-14, and an even more ready option for 2014-15 and beyond. Tarasenko had 19 points in 38 games during his rookie year which came after the lockout lifted, and he followed it up with 43 points in 64 games in 2013-14.
The year after that he scored 37 goals and finished with 73 points in 77 games, and he followed that up with 40 goals and 74 points in 2015-16, and 39 goals and 75 points in 2016-17. The Rangers are an organization that had routinely drafted Russian born players, and famously had a group of players become the first Russians to win a Stanley Cup in 1994.
Tarasenko was a 6'1" and 219 pound winger with a very lethal shot and offensive acumen, and dropping him on the 2013-14 and 2014-15 squad would have been quite a treat that could have given the team that little something extra to win a championship.