I get it but with the lack of depth especially on young dman in Hartford, they should consider taking a chances on someone that might improve the depth. The Rangers should not rely on depth NHL vets or AHL depth vets. Habs got depth on young defense, Ducks also have young depth on defense, maybe a forward prospect for dman trade might happen in the future. outside of Robertson (who is not that good and AHL depth vets play with the Rangers like Mackey and Harpur over him tells the story of his chance to make it), Scanlin (who also does not look like an NHL player) and Mancini (who looks impressive and the best of the bunch) the depth is not that great as far as potential and young quality defensive depth. Honestly I hope the Rangers can draft an overage dman or someone from Europe who can play in the AHL in the mid-rounds in this upcoming draft so he might have the chance to improve that defensive depth in Hartford. When injuries to the defense happens, this will be an issue with this team. Do we want to see Harpur and Mackey in playoff games? I rather take a chance with Mancini and or some future d prospect that is already playing pro hockey.
Prospect Info: 2024-2025 Rangers Prospects Thread (Prospect Stats in Post #1; Updated 11/3/2024)
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I get it but with the lack of depth especially on young dman in Hartford, they should consider taking a chances on someone that might improve the depth. The Rangers should not rely on depth NHL vets or AHL depth vets. Habs got depth on young defense, Ducks also have young depth on defense, maybe a forward prospect for dman trade might happen in the future. outside of Robertson (who is not that good and AHL depth vets play with the Rangers like Mackey and Harpur over him tells the story of his chance to make it), Scanlin (who also does not look like an NHL player) and Mancini (who looks impressive and the best of the bunch) the depth is not that great as far as potential and young quality defensive depth. Honestly I hope the Rangers can draft an overage dman or someone from Europe who can play in the AHL in the mid-rounds in this upcoming draft so he might have the chance to improve that defensive depth in Hartford. When injuries to the defense happens, this will be an issue with this team. Do we want to see Harpur and Mackey in playoff games? I rather take a chance with Mancini and or some future d prospect that is already playing pro hockey.
eco's bones
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Well if Mancini doesn't make the Rangers he's a very young man. Also Miller is 24 and Schneider 23. If Mancini does make the Rangers it's almost like Hartford at the end of last year was a stepping stone for him from college to the NHL and it might work the same way with Emery and Fortescue and both of those guys kind of have many of the same comparable to Miller, Schneider and Mancini---size (though they both need to fill out), skating and very good defensive ability.
This year then if Mancini does make the Rangers there are three guys who have some NHL experience with the Pack who might be good players to call up in an emergency--Mackey, Harpur, Fitzgerald. I don't hate that. As for Fortescue and Emery my guess is they play 24-25 and 25-26 with their respective colleges and then turn pro towards the end of 25-26 though with the teams BC puts together Fortescue might not be able to join the Rangers/Pack until the summer.
As for injuries and NHL playoffs. I don't even want to see Ruhwedel in the playoffs. That will mean there are injuries. Towards the deadline I would kind of expect the Rangers to bring in another D anyway. These same things most if not every NHL playoff team will have to deal with though. My major concern is we've traded away so much draft capital that if we add a significant player at the deadline we'll either have to trade next year's 1st or a significant younger player off our main roster. That's shit that happens to most teams once their windows open up to being a Stanley Cup contenders.
Mugless
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3 of the Top 19 NCAA players are Rangers; Gabe, Emery, Laba:
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Gotta say: NYR really lucked out with Perreault and Emery. I actually think Gabe is a superior prospect to Leonard.
GAGLine
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Fortescue at 81 seems low. He played big minutes as a freshman on one of the best teams in college hockey, and also played a significant role on the gold medal winning WJC team.
Larsson at 96 is probably right until he shows something at the NCAA level.
The Crypto Guy
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Way too low, but he's not flashy so that's probably why. Then again neither is Emery and he's ranked very high.
He was a complete rock back their for BC last season and I expect him to get even a bigger role this year.
eco's bones
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Unless a player was considered a top pick for the 2025 draft they didn't list any undrafted players. The article cited today about Colorado College's Gleb Vermeyev for example wasn't on this list and he was someone who caught my attention last year as a guy who is going to get signed by someone and probably after this year. From year to year there are a lot of undrafted guys who become top college players. I was also surprised that Rasmus Larsson made this list and Brody Lamb didn't. Lamb had a pretty good sophomore year.
Fortescue strikes me as one of those guys that will be unheralded right up until he's soaking up second pair minutes in the NHL. And then they'll show tape of his college career and juniors tournaments and everyone will talk about him like they had been tracking him all along.
While I agree with your thought of signing undrafted or free agent drafted players to fill some prospect needs, I have a couple of responses.
First, the Rangers organization through Hartford signed Case McCarthy, NJD 2019 4th round pick, Carter Berger, 2019 Florida 4th round pick, Ryan Siedem, undrafted but ranked as draft able in his draft year, and Chase Paul, undrafted 20 year old out of the WHL. McCarthy and Siedem got two year deals so Hartford retains control beyond this year. Time will tell whether any of these guys are any good but you don't have to you an NHL contract on every young prospect and have that contract be a potential burden for two or three years if the prospect flames out.
Second, in following the undrafted players their potential path to the NHL is a key factor in choosing where to sign if not the key factor. So if your a defenseman looking at the Rangers system you see Fox, Miller, Schneider, Jones. Emery, Fortescue and now Mancini. Or you could look at a team like San Jose and see a pretty direct path to the NHL. Which opportunity looks more appealing to you?
Finally, when I retired in 2014 and started following the Rangers and the team's prospects much more closely I paid attention to the undrafted prospects, particularly from the NCAA. The Rangers signed lots of guys through 2022 to fill big holes in Hartford.
In 2013 the Rangers signed Josh Nichols (WHL), Michael Kantor (OHL), Tommy Hughes (OHL), Troy Donny (OHL), Samuel Noreau (QMJHL), Conor Allen (Mass-Amherst), Chris McCarthy (Vermont), Matt Bodie (Union) and Peter Zamorsky (Extra Liga). Allen and Hughes were decent AHL players and Conor Allen had a few games with the Rangers. But this was not a very successful group and it demonstrates that the success rate for these types of players is not high.
In 2016 the Rangers signed Adam Chapie (U Mass Lowell), John Gilmour (unsigned Calgary draft pick out of Vermont and Malte Stromwell out of Sweden. Gilmour had 33 games with the Rangers during 2018 and 2019 when the Rangers were bad.
In 2017 the Rangers again dipped deep into the free agent pool signing Chris Nell out of Bowling green, Alexei Berglazov out of Russia, Vince Pedrie out of Penn State and Dawson Leedahl from the WHL. The Rangers big successes were Neil Pionk and Alexsander Georgiev. The Rangers also signed Vinnie Lettieri who played ~50 games with the Rangers in 2017 and 2018 when the Rangers were struggling and has managed to play for several other teams as a call up.
2018 saw Meskanen and Lindqvist, neither of whom stayed in Hartford very long.
2019 saw Jake Elmer, who couldn't even make it in Hartford, and Patrick Newell who had a mediocre career with Hartford.
In 2020 the Rangers signed Justin Richards, Austin Reuschoff and Patrick Kodorenko, all of whom have had very mediocre AHL careers.
The last NHL free agent signings were in 2022 with Bobby Trivigno and Brandon Scanlin. I was rooting for Bobby but he just didn't show enough. I like Scanlin and expect that he will be a top defenseman for Hartford again this year. I think he can play in the NHL but we'll see.
The Rangers did get lucky with the signings of Kevin Hayes and Jimmy Vesey but situations where highly drafted players don't sign with their drafting team are fairly unusual.
For the undrafted players, other than Neil Pionk and a few guys who have gotten cups of coffee, the success rate for the Rangers isn't very high. And I suspect it's not that different for other teams. When Connor Mackey came out of college he was a highly prized undrafted free agent and he's struggled to make the NHL.
So as Eco Bones said, you need to be prudent in signing these types of players unless your prospect system is bare. And you can try some of these guys through AHL contracts rather than NHL contracts. If there were highly rated defensive free agents and those players looked at the Rangers' young defesneman, I wouldn't see a clear path to the NHL making the Rangers a less desirable option right now. And if you do sign any of these guys you know that the success rate will be fairly low.
I agree with you that it would be nice for the Rangers to fill in some defensive prospect holes with undrafted players. But I think it's more easily said than done.
Fitzy
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Emery was described to me around the draft as the last best experiment to see if there can be such a thing as an elite stay at home defenseman in the modern game.
I’d see him partnering quite well with a more adventurous blue liner
I’d see him partnering quite well with a more adventurous blue liner
I understand that not every undrafted player is gonna be like Dan Girardi Mats Zuccarello and Cam Talbot. But with the lack of depth as in young dman, the Rangers should try to take more chances with these types with ELC. They used to sign undrafted players more often maybe they rarely do now because the prospect depth has gotten better as an organization but some positions like RW and D, Rangers still have issues with young depth. The fact is since the Buchnevich trade, they have not had any young RW depth, it’s so bad they had to convert some of those young LW to young RW. I hope this gets fixed in the future. Quick question, like Kevin Hayes was drafted as RW and switched to center, can this happen to Gabe Perreault, reason I ask cause his hockey IQ and playmaking ability. Does Perreault play all 3 forward positions at school or just RW? And with Edstrom size, I wonder if he will get a look at center. I believe he played center in the SHL, although I could be mistaken.
eco's bones
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To add a bit---I hear this guy sucks that guy sucks all the time about any number of players including guys that have stuck as depth players in the NHL for a while. Having played a lot of recreation league hockey it just strikes me that so many people don't realize how much time, effort and dedication it takes for someone to even make it as a CHL or college player. You got to be pretty good just to get that far. But most CHL and college players aren't going to go beyond that and for most that do very few are going to make it into the NHL to stay. I kind of lament the fact also though that to make it that far (in these times anyway) usually you have to someone who can provide a lot of financial support. It's becoming more and more a game for people with means and less and less for those without.
Rasmus Larsson was +1, 1 SOG, and took 2 penalties in his college debut for Northern Michigan.
Reminder that CC, WMU, Minnesota, and NoDak are all playing exhibitions.
Raoul Boilard had his first goal of the season and is 1-2-3 in 4 games.
Yesterday, Kalle Väisänen had his first goal of the season.
Reminder that CC, WMU, Minnesota, and NoDak are all playing exhibitions.
Raoul Boilard had his first goal of the season and is 1-2-3 in 4 games.
Yesterday, Kalle Väisänen had his first goal of the season.
Are you watching? The game sheet had him on the second pair and the box score shows him registering a SOG. If he's not actively playing I would assume he had to leave with an injury or something.
Lindberg Cheese
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Mugless
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North Dakota lists Emery at 6'3", 172 lbs. Kid is going to be a terror when he fills out.
I'm going to try to view all the BC games this season that are made available on the ESPN+ service. Will try to report on the play of the Rangers prospects as well as freshman James Hagens.
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I watched as many as I could last year. It was really good coverage. Gonna do it again.
GAGLine
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Plans foiled!
I haven't had cable access in a long time. Do you think Saturday's game will be on ESPN+?
I was operating under the impression that nearly all of BC's games were carried by ESPN+ last season.
GAGLine
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I was as well. I'm guessing BIG 10 has exclusive rights or something, which sucks. These games are the only reason I re-upped with ESPN+. I still have cable, so I can watch these games, but I really want to get rid of it. The cost is ridiculous. I just need to figure out the right alternative.
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The Crypto Guy
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