It was not the best of weeks for the New York Rangers prospects. There was only one prospect who could say he had a good week and even then, it was not that big.
Raoul Boilard of the Baie-Comeau Drakkar continues his solid play of the last two weeks. On Friday night, Boilard would earn the primary assist on the game-winning goal scored by his older brother Jules.
The assist is not what stood out from Boilard's performance, what did was going an amazing 20-5 on his faceoffs. Boilard had gotten off to a slow start this season with his faceoffs but after Saturday's 12-9 effort, his November numbers improved to 63.9%.
Overall for the season Boilard is up to 56.4% and the Rangers who are thin at center among the prospect pool need someone who can win faceoffs. Boilard earned first star of the game honors on Saturday, thanks to a 1-1-2 performance.
The 1-2-3 effort this week improved Boilard season numbers to 5-14-19 — which is currently the best among the Rangers prospects. Of his five goals, four came on the power play and two of those were game winning goals.
His Baie-Comeau Drakkar are in second place in the QMJHL's Eastern Conference with a 15-6-1-0 record.
The Rest of the Prospects
Noah Laba returned to the Colorado College lineup Friday after missing five games with a lower body injury.
Nathan Aspinall is also out with a "lower-body injury" as he has missed the last four games of his Flint Firebird. The injury happened on November 9th when he blocked a shot, went down and never returned.
A shame too as at the time of the injury, Aspinall was the leading scorer among the Rangers prospects with a 7-6-13 line.
E. J. Emery saw his team drop both games of the two-game series to top-ranked and defending champion, Denver University. Emery may not be showing any offense, but he is getting job done on defense.
Emery has 14 blocked shots in 11 games for his North Dakota Fighting Hawks. He has been playing on the right side of the third pair and has impressed with his excellent hockey vision, his ability to see the play happening in front of hm and attacking it.
If Emery can find any kind of offense, then he will be at worst a second pair defender in the National Hockey League. At only 18, Emery has a lot of room for growth as a player.
Drew Fortescue is showing some signs of having some offense to his game. Fortescue is the left side of Boston College's first defensive pair.
Only 19, Fortescue plays with the maturity of a seasoned veteran, his defensive play allows his partner Eamon Powell to go on the attack knowing that Fortescue will cover for him if he gets caught up ice.
Fortescue has a great shot that is accurate from the point. He keeps the shot low to the ice so it can generate rebounds. Fortescue on defense is just about ready to turn professional, but he needs some fine-tuning on the offensive side.
Gabe Perreault saw his eight-game game scoring streak end against UConn on Friday night. He had started the season 5-8-13 but UConn was able to get under his skin and it affected his play.
If you have ESPN+ then Tuesday, Nov. 19, Perreault and Fortescue will lead Boston College up against Providence in a game televised on ESPNU starting at 7 p.m. EST.
Brody Lamb after 12 games is sitting at 8-5-13 for Minnesota. Of those eight goals, six were power play goals and one was a game-winner.
Lamb leads both Minnesota and the Ranger prospects in goal scored. His career best in goals was last season when he scored 12 in 39 games. Things look bright for him to potentially shatter that number.
Rasmus Larsson is currently playing for Northern Michigan, who are unfortunately winless in their last nine games. Larsson is still looking for his first career NCAA point.
Ty Henricks is 1-1-2 for Western Michigan, he is a freshman and has been playing left wing on the fourth line.
Rounding things out, Hank Kempf is 0-2-2 in five games with seven blocked shots and Zakary Karpa is still looking for his first point of the season at 0-0-0 after five games.