NHL Entry Draft: 2025 Draft Pick Watch

I resigned to believe no matter what they do they will do the wrong thing. Keep the pick and whiff on a mid teen pick, and watch them finish in the lottery only for Pittsburgh to have a shot at McKenna. Punt the pick to next year, end up drafting in a similar spot outside of top 10 next year. And ultimately f*** up the development on whomever they pick anyway.
That would be on brand.
 
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I resigned to believe no matter what they do they will do the wrong thing. Keep the pick and whiff on a mid teen pick, and watch them finish in the lottery only for Pittsburgh to have a shot at McKenna. Punt the pick to next year, end up drafting in a similar spot outside of top 10 next year. And ultimately f*** up the development on whomever they pick anyway.
If you pick same or even a bit later next year in a deeper draft, did you really lose anything?
 
11th pick it is. The Rangers will keep the pick. They negotiated the trade knowing full well what the draft pool looked like. When you are my age, you want the asset sooner than later.
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Why would the Rangers not take the 11th pick? Drury gave Igor $92M and traded for JT MIller with a $8M cap hit and 5 years remaining on his contract. Drury is not expecting the Rangers to tank next season judging by his moves. These are his moves. If Drury gives up this pick fearing the team will be worse next season, Chris should be fired this morning along with Laviolette.
 
The draft has center depth besides Misa and Hagens. The Rangers desperately need another center.
I'd argue we need LD more. Like it or not, Mika, JTM and Trocheck will probably stick around for at least a couple more years. We have guys like Brodzinski, Carrick, Edstrom, and potentially Laba or Barker who can play in the bottom 6.

At LD we have KAM, Vaak, Soucy and Jones. Fortescue is our only legit LD prospect. If we get 1st overall, I don't think twice about taking Schaefer. At 11, I would take Smith if he's still there.

If neither of those guys are available where we are picking, then sure, take a center.
 
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I think winning the lottery is one thing, but I don't really get why so many are up in arms around the concept of deferring the pick to next year if it's 11th or 12th. It's not this weird notion that Drury is giving up on the team. It's just as easily spun as he traded this year's first for JT Miller as an investment into reshaping the core.

Just look at the draft and compare and contrast. I'm really not going to lose sleep over the notion of passing over Carter Bear, Jackson Smith, or Kash Aitcheson. Good prospects, but they're kids you won't see for 3-4 years and aren't going to reshape the future. Deferring it gives you more flexibility for the following season from multiple perspectives, whether it's having an asset for next year's deadline if the team is better, an asset to make a competitive offer sheet for someone like JJ Peterka if a trade can't be reached (please don't reply to this waxing poetic about offer sheets never happening), or it gives you the chance to have a first round pick in a deeper draft next year.

Plus, there's teams with multiple first this year that will likely be making trades. I don't think it's that crazy that we could see player movement involving one of those picks depending on what Drury (hopefully a new GM) wants to do.

Besides, if they win the lottery and get 1st or 2nd, the obvious move is to trade it to PIT for our and their 2026 firsts ;)
 
Why would the Rangers not take the 11th pick? Drury gave Igor $92M and traded for JT MIller with a $8M cap hit and 5 years remaining on his contract. Drury is not expecting the Rangers to tank next season judging by his moves. These are his moves. If Drury gives up this pick fearing the team will be worse next season, Chris should be fired this morning along with Laviolette.
Drury shouldn't be the GM beyond break up day. Someone posted it the other day. More than half, almost 2/3 of the hockey pundit consortium picked the Rangers to win the Metro this season.

They missed the playoffs and didn't exactly have terrible injury luck. Kreider had a nagging back injury all year and Fox missed a bit of time. Outside of that?

There's no excuse for this team falling flat on their faces. That falls on the person that constructed the team.

Under his watch, three players this season alone, including the 2nd overall pick from 5 years ago, went to the media to complain about their ice time and management. Imagine if that happened anywhere else?

Drury made the trade for Miller in an effort to save the season and his job. He failed.
 
I'd argue we need LD more. Like it or not, Mika, JTM and Trocheck will probably stick around for at least a couple more years. We have guys like Brodzinski, Carrick, Edstrom, and potentially Laba or Barker who can play in the bottom 6.

At LD we have KAM, Vaak, Soucy and Jones. Fortescue is our only legit LD prospect. If we get 1st overall, I don't think twice about taking Schaefer. At 11, I would take Smith if he's still there.

If neither of those guys are available where we are picking, then sure, take a center.
I read this draft class is weak on D. Smith would have been the 5th or 6th D in the 2024 draft class.
 
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I think winning the lottery is one thing, but I don't really get why so many are up in arms around the concept of deferring the pick to next year if it's 11th or 12th. It's not this weird notion that Drury is giving up on the team. It's just as easily spun as he traded this year's first for JT Miller as an investment into reshaping the core.

Just look at the draft and compare and contrast. I'm really not going to lose sleep over the notion of passing over Carter Bear, Jackson Smith, or Kash Aitcheson. Good prospects, but they're kids you won't see for 3-4 years and aren't going to reshape the future. Deferring it gives you more flexibility for the following season from multiple perspectives, whether it's having an asset for next year's deadline if the team is better, an asset to make a competitive offer sheet for someone like JJ Peterka if a trade can't be reached (please don't reply to this waxing poetic about offer sheets never happening), or it gives you the chance to have a first round pick in a deeper draft next year.

Plus, there's teams with multiple first this year that will likely be making trades. I don't think it's that crazy that we could see player movement involving one of those picks depending on what Drury (hopefully a new GM) wants to do.

Besides, if they win the lottery and get 1st or 2nd, the obvious move is to trade it to PIT for our and their 2026 firsts ;)

There are three things that make me want to hold onto the pick.

1) We aren't likely to get a significantly better pick next year unless we win the lottery next year. People can point to next year being a "better draft," but even if it's true, it doesn't mean the player we pick will automatically be better.

2) If the player we would take next year isn't significantly better than the player we would take this year, then select the player a year earlier means that player will be able to contribute a year earlier.

3) If we give up this year's pick, Drury can still trade the 2026 pick and put us in an even deeper hole if things don't work out. Yes, he could draft a player this year and then trade that player next year, but that seems less likely.

Now, if we trade vets and bring back young players and picks, then sure, give the pick away. But I don't see Drury going that route. He may trade a couple vets, but he's going to bring in vets to replace them. He's going to do everything he can to get back to the playoffs.
 
I read this draft class is weak on D. Smith would have been the 5th or 6th D in the 2024 draft class.
Maybe. I don't know how they compare, but I've seen a lot of good things on Smith. He's a very good skater, for one thing, and he has good size, which I know you prefer.

At 11, I don't know that guys like Carter Bear, Jake O'Brien, or Brady Martin are better options.

That said, if we get the 2nd overall pick and take Misa, I won't be disappointed.
 
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Draft a defenseman. Fox needs support, whether that's now or a few years from now. This team is not going to properly develop a forward because they're always going to find a vet to give those minutes too. Just draft all d men for a few years and hope you hit and then at least you have a legit first pair in front of Igor. That solves a lot of problems IMO.
 
But no time to wait for a center to develop....Kreider and the 1st to Sabres for who?
A bag of pucks and a third. Sabres are not contenders. No reason to get an over-the-hill CK20.

You might get a late first (if you add a fourth) or a late second and fourth from a playoff team, though. This isn't the trade deadline, when overpayment prevails.
 
There are three things that make me want to hold onto the pick.

1) We aren't likely to get a significantly better pick next year unless we win the lottery next year. People can point to next year being a "better draft," but even if it's true, it doesn't mean the player we pick will automatically be better.

2) If the player we would take next year isn't significantly better than the player we would take this year, then select the player a year earlier means that player will be able to contribute a year earlier.

3) If we give up this year's pick, Drury can still trade the 2026 pick and put us in an even deeper hole if things don't work out. Yes, he could draft a player this year and then trade that player next year, but that seems less likely.

Now, if we trade vets and bring back young players and picks, then sure, give the pick away. But I don't see Drury going that route. He may trade a couple vets, but he's going to bring in vets to replace them. He's going to do everything he can to get back to the playoffs.
That's completely fair. I think it's tough to say right now that it's not likely that they'll have a better pick next year because there's so many things up in the air right now. I think it'll be better to revisit this in a few weeks to see if they end up firing both of Drury and Laviolette.

I agree that a later pick doesn't necessarily mean that the player will automatically be better, but my point was that there's guys in the 20s next year that'll likely be just as good as the guys I listed before will be at the NHL level. With respect to trading the pick, the Rangers were rumored to be very close to acquiring JJ Peterka; I'd imagine this is the most likely player they'd be moving that pick for, and I'd have no issues with that at all. I would guess that Drury would use the pick to acquire a player like that rather than to bring in vets. I guess it depends on how we're defining vets, but clearly Drury has an archetype for players he wants. We were heavily linked to Guentzel before he went to CAR/TB, and Peterka fits that mold. Who else does Drury want in that vein and what other archetypes is he looking for?
 

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