Prospect Info: 2022-2023 Rangers Prospects Thread (Player Stats in Post #1; Updated 06.04.2023)

[Amazing Kreiderman]

I'd be pretty happy if Sykora goes the WHL route next season. He is still REALLY young and doesn't even turn 19 until training camps are underway in Juniors. I think getting adjusted to the more physical play and smaller rinks will be good for him. He seems like the type of player that will strive on smaller rinks instead of bigger rinks since he is an aggressive, hard to the net, in your face player.

Just have him in Hartford if those are the reasons.

 

[bhamill]

Just have him in Hartford if those are the reasons.

Well I think there's a difference in the size and strength department, as well as the level of play. If the point is acclimation, because he will still be 18 when training camp starts, why throw him into arguably the second best league on the planet for said acclimation?
That being said, I think the SEL would be great as well, but for different aspects of his development.

 

[The Crypto Guy]

Just have him in Hartford if those are the reasons.

Don't see any reason, he is still young and growing into his body. Let him get 20 minutes in the WHL than a 3rd/4th line role in HFD. HFD when he is 20.

Also easier to further develop his offensive game in the WHL. Don't want that stalled out in the AHL with limited ice time.

 

[nyr2k2]

Don't see any reason, he is still young and growing into his body. Let him get 20 minutes in the WHL than a 3rd/4th line role in HFD. HFD when he is 20.

Also easier to further develop his offensive game in the WHL. Don't want that stalled out in the AHL with limited ice time.

Yeah this gets back to what I said earlier, and what @Uninstaaled was saying--he's already good at what he's good at. If we want him to continue to reinforce the defensive game, the forechecking, the physicality, then playing bottom six in the AHL is probably fine. If we want him to try to tap into the offensive potential that may be there, then playing 20 minutes every night in juniors and featuring on the PP, is probably a better route.

 

[cwede]

this makes no sense to me ...

 

[Harbour Dog]

Wow, just letting Grubbe walk is a bit of a head scratcher. Seemed like he came along pretty much as expected, and was a relatively young captain.

Large discrepancy between our current and former scouts on him maybe. Seems like a no brainer contract to me.

 

[Lua]

this makes no sense to me ...

Wow, just letting Grubbe walk is a bit of a head scratcher. Seemed like he came along pretty much as expected, and was a relatively young captain.

Large discrepancy between our current and former scouts on him maybe. Seems like a no brainer contract to me.

In any case, Drury was at the helm during that draft, and from all reports Grubbe seems like a Drury kind of player. This makes no sense to me. Only thing I can think of is that Drury plans to sign more than one of these highly-touted college kids who either went undrafted or renounced the teams that drafted them this week. Skyler Brind'Amour would be a good meme.

 

[nyr2k2]

Maybe Grubbe didn't want to play here?

I mean, to be clear--I liked Grubbe but he's not a high-end prospect IMO. Profiled as a good 4th line C, maybe a 3C if the offense came around. Obviously not something you'd want to just throw away, but feels like there's more to it.

 

[RangersFan1994]

Wow, just letting Grubbe walk is a bit of a head scratcher. Seemed like he came along pretty much as expected, and was a relatively young captain.

Large discrepancy between our current and former scouts on him maybe. Seems like a no brainer contract to me.

Making room for other or better prospects would be the only reason why they’d do this. Maybe Rangers have a plan to sign some of the future college prospects like Jay O’Brien and others.

In any case, Drury was at the helm during that draft, and from all reports Grubbe seems like a Drury kind of player. This makes no sense to me. Only thing I can think of is that Drury plans to sign more than one of these highly-touted college kids who either went undrafted or renounced the teams that drafted them this week. Skyler Brind'Amour would be a good meme.

I bet Jay O’Brien is on Drury’s list.. many feel Brind’Amour is going to the Hurricanes

 

[Lua]

Maybe Grubbe didn't want to play here?

I mean, to be clear--I liked Grubbe but he's not a high-end prospect IMO. Profiled as a good 4th line C, maybe a 3C if the offense came around. Obviously not something you'd want to just throw away, but feels like there's more to it.

Were that the case, wouldn't it be Grubbe/Grubbe's camp making it public that they don't intend to sign? From my observations, that's usually the order of things, and would be in line with the other recent announcements this week. I could be wrong; it's just a consideration.

 

[eco's bones]

FWIW I like Grubbe a lot more than I like Korczak. Put another way I think Grubbe has a much more realistic path to the NHL or at least with the Rangers or at least if they were still interested. Also don't think Boyko is a particularly good goalie prospect. So to my mind we've signed lesser prospects already.

 

[Ranger Ric]

this makes no sense to me ...

Surprising but the team may be much higher on Noah Laba as a future defensive center. A PPG average for a 20 year old in the WHL does not scream a must sign.

Grubbe now goes back into the draft. Perhaps Drury is hoping another team interested in Grubbe offers him a late round pick before the June 1 deadline.

 

[Ranger Ric]

FWIW I like Grubbe a lot more than I like Korczak. Put another way I think Grubbe has a much more realistic path to the NHL or at least with the Rangers or at least if they were still interested. Also don't think Boyko is a particularly good goalie prospect. So to my mind we've signed lesser prospects already.

You may be right about Grubbe having a more realistic NHL path. But Grubbe vs. Korczak may be more of a question of organizational need. The team seems to have lots of potential fourth line players while there is not a great deal of offensive ability with the prospects.

 

[17futurecap]

Surprising, because they don’t have anyone to sign except Barbashev through 2024.

I would say all of Aaltonen, Ciccolini, Tarnstrom, Hughes and Kjellberg aren’t getting NHL contracts.

 

[redwhiteandblue]

Surprising but the team may be much higher on Noah Laba as a future defensive center. A PPG average for a 20 year old in the WHL does not scream a must sign.

Grubbe now goes back into the draft. Perhaps Drury is hoping another team interested in Grubbe offers him a late round pick before the June 1 deadline.

Me who has fallen in love with Laba because he wants USHL to be a more popular route to the show

 

[Ranger Ric]

Surprising, because they don’t have anyone to sign except Barbashev through 2024.

I would say all of Aaltonen, Ciccolini, Tarnstrom, Hughes and Kjellberg aren’t getting NHL contracts.

But if they signed him it would be for 3 years and the team decided it did not want to tie up a contract for him for that period of time.

 

[bobbop]

Drury shopping Grubbe’s rights.

 

[savebyrichter94]

Drury shopping Grubbe’s rights.

Bummer

 

[Kravtsov420]

More terrible asset management for where we picked him. This organization will never learn

 

[nyr2k2]

Were that the case, wouldn't it be Grubbe/Grubbe's camp making it public that they don't intend to sign? From my observations, that's usually the order of things, and would be in line with the other recent announcements this week. I could be wrong; it's just a consideration.

Certainly possible. My thinking is that he may not want to sign, and knowing that he'll be going back into the draft, they're trying to trade him for something before that happens. If they didn't think he was worth a contract it seems a stretch that they'd think they could trade him for anything.

Surprising, because they don’t have anyone to sign except Barbashev through 2024.

I would say all of Aaltonen, Ciccolini, Tarnstrom, Hughes and Kjellberg aren’t getting NHL contracts.

As much shit as I've given Kjellberg over the years, he's the only one I could realistically see getting a deal. That whole "you can never have too many defensemen" thing. His dad has also hung around despite the rest of the departures, for whatever that's worth.

Also, Capfriendly now says that we have the rights to both Kjellberg AND Hughes until next summer. I would assume they add Ciccolini to that list as it looks like they're just saying anyone who is playing another year of college, has their rights retained by the drafting club for that extra year. I don't see that anywhere in any official NHL document but I guess we'll find out.

More terrible asset management for where we picked him. This organization will never learn

I'm curious, if they've decided he isn't worth a contract, or if the player has indicated he doesn't want to sign, what should the Rangers do? Let him walk?

 

[Kravtsov420]

Certainly possible. My thinking is that he may not want to sign, and knowing that he'll be going back into the draft, they're trying to trade him for something before that happens. If they didn't think he was worth a contract it seems a stretch that they'd think they could trade him for anything.

As much shit as I've given Kjellberg over the years, he's the only one I could realistically see getting a deal. That whole "you can never have too many defensemen" thing. His dad has also hung around despite the rest of the departures, for whatever that's worth.

Also, Capfriendly now says that we have the rights to both Kjellberg AND Hughes until next summer. I would assume they add Ciccolini to that list as it looks like they're just saying anyone who is playing another year of college, has their rights retained by the drafting club for that extra year. I don't see that anywhere in any official NHL document but I guess we'll find out.


I'm curious, if they've decided he isn't worth a contract, or if the player has indicated he doesn't want to sign, what should the Rangers do? Let him walk?

There hasn’t been any word from the player’s camp. If that’s the case so be it, but the rangers do not have a good track record lately on exactly getting equal value for their prospects.

It’s getting very tiresome with the wasting of assets

 

[BBKers]

I think he indicated he would not be signing

 

[I Eat Crow]

The only reason I see the Rangers not signing Grubbe is because they see things are already packed at the NHL and AHL level for checking center prospects. BMB, Rempe, Korzak, and AHL vets like Brodzinski are all ahead of him in the pecking order.

Head scratcher otherwise to not sign him. He seems to have progressed nicely once he was fully healthy.

 

[nyr2k2]

There hasn’t been any word from the player’s camp. If that’s the case so be it, but the rangers do not have a good track record lately on exactly getting equal value for their prospects.

It’s getting very tiresome with the wasting of assets

Is it? Lias Andersson apparently just sucks. They flipped him for the pick that ended up as Will Cuylle. It's obviously not what you want the 7OA to become, but once you acknowledge it was a poor pick...then what? I think the return was fine given where they were with Andersson and it looks even more reasonable now.

Kravtsov was another bad pick. He's moved on to a new team that has the same issues with him being a cream puff and they don't even play him every night. The return for him sucked, but it seems pretty clear that there wasn't really much interest in him, yes?

Lundkvist didn't want to fight for a spot here and asked for a trade. We moved him for what will be a higher pick than where he was drafted plus a mid-round pick. Oh, and he's playing mediocre hockey and getting scratched in Dallas.

Of these three, I would argue that they should have cut bait with Kravtsov sooner when it became abundantly clear that he was a whiny little bitch. They made a decision however that they wanted to stick with their investment, and it ended up not working out. I'm annoyed by that but understand why they handled it how they did. The other two scenarios, I don't fault the team for how they handled things and certainly have no issues with the returns. In both cases those returns could end up looking very good for us.

I think it's more of an issue of drafting. "Asset management" is such a tired phrase around here.

The only reason I see the Rangers not signing Grubbe is because they see things are already packed at the NHL and AHL level for checking center prospects. BMB, Rempe, Korzak, and AHL vets like Brodzinski are all ahead of him in the pecking order.

Head scratcher otherwise to not sign him. He seems to have progressed nicely once he was fully healthy.

There has to be something more to it. Even if you think he's realistically blocked, or redundant, or whatever, you can always trade him in a package for something else or even for a similar prospect (rare, but the Gauthier-Keane type deals can happen). There's no way they'd let him walk if they thought he was a real prospect IMO.

 

[Clark Kellogg]

Maybe Grubbe didn't want to play here?

I mean, to be clear--I liked Grubbe but he's not a high-end prospect IMO. Profiled as a good 4th line C, maybe a 3C if the offense came around. Obviously not something you'd want to just throw away, but feels like there's more to it.

That was my reaction as well. He may be overwhelmed with New York or just the Northeast U.S.
So what’s the next step?
Trade his rights?