The New York Rangers released a letter on February 8, 2018 talking about the future and their intentions to trade away some familiar faces, and it was the first official step in an official rebuild for a group that had gone to a Stanley Cup final and several conference finals. The Rangers ended up in a situation where they made several trades, and heading into the 2018 NHL Entry Draft they held three first rounds picks. With this week at NHL FanSided being about the draft and prospects, now is a great time to look at how failing to capitalize at this draft set back their recently announced rebuild, and played a role in it not being as efficient as it should have been.
Rangers probably should have tanked harder, but still had No. 9 overall pick
The Rangers went 3-10-1 in the month of Feburary and picked up just seven points. In the month of March they were slightly better with a record of 6-6-3 and 15 points, and in April they went 0-3-0. They finished with 77 points overall, and the teams that finished behind them include Chicago with 76 points, Vancouver with 73 points, Detroit with 73 points, Montreal with 71 points, Arizona with 70 points, Ottawa with 67 points, and Buffalo with 62 points. Had the Blueshirts done in March what they did in February, they would have been in position to finish with the third or fourth worst record. That they waived the red flag to rebuild, and still won some meaningless games to finish with the eighth worst record was a bummer, as was sliding back a spot in the draft lottery.
When it comes to the pick of Vitali Kravtsov, it's a bummer it didn't work out for them. He was ranked No. 12 on Bob McKenzie of TSN's final top 93, and his ranking incorporates the draft boards of a handful of unidentified teams. They didn't make a huge reach there, and they picked him over Oliver Wahlstrom who many expected to become a Blueshirt. We now know Wahlstrom didn't amount to much either, but the pain of Quinn Hughes going at No. 7 overall, Evan Bouchard going at No. 10 overall, and Noah Dobson going at No. 12 can't be understated here. Either one of these blueliners would have been great for the Rangers, and would have been a great part of a defense group that would eventually add New York native Adam Fox.
Rangers gave up on Nils Lundkvist too soon
In the grand scheme of things, Lundkvist might have been traded anyway, but the team's first-round pick didn't get a fair shake in New York, and he's proven to be quite valuable in Dallas. The Rangers gave Lundkvist 25 games to prove himself, and then sidelined him to give Braden Schneider, another defensive prospect, an opportunity to show what he could do. Schneider was worse in his initial sample than Lundkvist was, but he was allowed to play (badly) through his struggles.
In his stint on Broadway, Lundkvist had a 59.8 GF%, a 43.48 CF%. and a 46.15 xGF% as a 21-year-old rookie averaging just 13:56 per game per Evolving-Hockey. With Dallas, Lundkvist has posted a 54.5 GF%, a 53.55 CF%, and a 52.7 xGF% across 158 games averaging 15:10 per game. A big strength of his game was offense and distributing the puck, and that's still an area the team could improve upon. He was the right pick at the time, I am not saying they should have taken Rasmus Sandin instead (116 points in 309 games), but had they waited longer with Lundkvist they might have had a more productive player.
K'Andre Miller never reached full potential, maybe Scott Morrow can
Miller was the Rangers' second pick in the first round of the 2018 NHL Draft, and they moved up to select him. It was the right move as he showed a lot of promise, and ultimately turned into a legitimate NHL defender. He had a slow and steady rise with the Rangers, peaking in 2022-23 with 43 points in 79 games as a 23-year-old second pair defenseman, but his game has declined in the two years since. He was moved to the Carolina Hurricanes in a sign and trade earlier in the summer, and the Rangers now hope that Scott Morrow (41st overall at 2021 NHL Draft) can be more impactful in the coming years.
Rangers could have supercharged rebuild with strong 2018 haul
The Rangers had three first round picks in 2018, one in 2019, two in 2020, one in 2021, and one in 2023. Those future picks include Kaapo Kakko (traded to Seattle), Alexis Lafrenière, Braden Schneider, Brennan Othmann, and Gabe Perreault. It is still early, but right now it isn't looking good in totality when looking at what the Rangers have gotten out of their first round picks.
The Rangers' "rebuild" was pretty short lived when you consider that they signed Artemi Panarin in July of 2019, and from that point on got more aggressive in terms of trying to make trades and sign free agents as opposed to building through the draft. During the rebuild period they did make traves to land Jacob Trouba and the aforementioned Adam Fox among others, and the team could have been in much better shape had they killed it at the 2018 draft. Had the Rangers bolstered their pool with better prospects, shifting their approach would have been more defensible. This is not to say they should have hit on each first round pick, but in hindsight there were opportunities left on the table.
The Rangers essentially are in the middle of another rebuild, although they are spinning it as a retool. The goal right now is capitalizing on a roster that is on the edge of contending, and the hope is that additions like J.T. Miller on the ice, and Mike Sullivan behind the bench can get more out of a group that won the Presidents' Trophy in 2023-24, and had gone to the Eastern Conference Final twice in four seasons. The team, as currently constructed, is on the older side, although you do still have some players like Lafrenière and Perreault who are young and can help now and in the future if they are as good as expected. In many ways 2025-26 could be an evaluation year for Sullivan, and how this year goes will determine if more drastic actions are taken in terms of overall roster construction.