The NY Rangers were handed an unexpected windfall in 2020. The Blueshirts landed the first-overall pick following the unusual circumstances underpinning the NHL Draft Lottery that year.
In the end, the Rangers got the top pick and used it on Alexis Lafrenière.
At the time, New York took the best player available. Since the Junior and NCAA hockey seasons had essentially been wiped out by COVID, there wasn’t much data to go on for teams to pick players.
But from what scouts had seen, Lafrenière was the best option. So, the Rangers made the most logical selection based on the prevailing wisdom at the time.
Fast-forward five years, and the Blueshirts went from two Conference Final appearances in three years to essentially rebuilding. The team has gotten older, and now lacks something crucial: A top-line center.
That’s something the NY Rangers could have solved in 2020 if they had taken Tim Stützle instead of Lafrenière.
How different would New York’s lineup have looked if they had picked Stützle, now the top-line center for the Ottawa Senators, instead of Lafrenière?
It’s an interesting question to pose, and it’s one that will haunt the Blueshirts for years to come.
Rangers should have anticipated the need
Six years ago, the NY Rangers had several star players in their primes. Mika Zibanejad was 27 and coming off a 40-goal season. Ryan Strome was 26 and put up a career-high 59 points in 2019-20. Plus, the Blueshirts had two up-and-coming centers in Brett Howden and Filip Chytil.
So, drafting a center wasn’t really a priority. The team could get away with drafting a scoring winger. Plus, New York could have gotten away with taking the best player available in the draft at the time. That’s why the decision seemed like a no-brainer at the time.
But when looking back at that 2020 NHL Draft, Lafrenière would not have been the top choice. In fact, Jack Quinn (8th), and Anton Lundell (12th) would have been much better options for the Rangers, given their current needs down the middle.
While the organization tried to remedy the situation by signing Vincent Trocheck and trading for J.T. Miller, the bottom line is that the Rangers would have been better off drafting a franchise center instead of Lafrenière.
But the Blueshirts get a pass due to the unprecedented situation that the entire world went through that season. Too bad the only time the NY Rangers picked first overall had to come during a weird season in which there was little to no data to inform their choice.
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