Nick Bobrov - Director of Euro Scouting dismissed by NYR

[Harbour Dog]

I was kind of low-key hoping that Bobrov wouldn't be our next head scout anyway. Our European scouting since he took over has probably been close to average, but it's a little annoying how easy it's been to predict which picks are going to underachieve.

 

[Machinehead]

I'm not asking for perfect I am asking for them to draft and develop just one of their own franchise talent instead of the same "safe" players that we know we will get solid NHL production from but they have a clear ceiling.

Adam Fox

They didn't draft him but who cares?

 

[HFsNumber1Heel]

I think we’ve been good. I think we can be better. I think some people are probably expecting a batting average that isn’t realistic and will be disappointed regardless.

The performance is what will measure success, not fancy stats. 2012-2017 where ten playoff rounds were won, very successful.

What people want and what should be the goal is not finding cool guys in the 6th-7th rounds every year that become NHL players, but finding guys who are either elite or step up their games in the playoffs. Kucherov/Point/Cirelli/Bergeron/Marchand/Pastrnak.

There is not that much difference from those guys and Panarin and Ziba during the regular season, but when push comes to shove, neither of the Rangers guys have done much in the post season or play ins.

Ziba had a moment against Montreal when he was a co-2C, but that's it. Panarin has not proven to be a playoff warrior in his career so far (not points but only out of round one once). Those are problems that have culturally gone on here for years.

 

[JT Kreider]

Adam Fox

They didn't draft him but who cares?

Fox forced his way here there really isn't much impressive about that.

There was a clear drafting strategy with the previous personnel and that didn't produce anything close to a talent of that level.

 

[Machinehead]

Fox forced his way here there really isn't much impressive about that.

Again, who cares? I wanna win, not impress people. I don't care if Fox hatched from an egg.

There was a clear drafting strategy with the previous personnel and that didn't produce anything close to a talent of that level.

Then it's good that we're firing the previous personnel!

 

[Lindberg Cheese]

Considering we’re talking about a bunch of second through 7th round picks, I think we’re grading a bit conservatively though.

Maybe but 4 of the bad picks came in rounds 1-3

 

[JT Kreider]

Again, who cares? I wanna win, not impress people. I don't care if Fox hatched from an egg.


Then it's good that we're firing the previous personnel!

Fair enough, I'm still just mystified how after all these years they still haven't drafted a franchise center of their own, one of the only teams in the league that hasn't, even at the very least a Dylan Larkin level.

And I really won't be satifisied until that happens.

 

[Amazing Kreiderman]

Maybe but 4 of the bad picks came in rounds 1-3

Rounds 2 and 3 are vastly different than round 1. I wouldn't lump them together.

They had 1 first round pick who didn't pan out.

When you look at the 2017 draft, they didn't draft again until round 4 when they selected Brandon Crawley. Out of all the players drafted after Crawley, the most NHL games any of them has played is 25 (Sebastian Aho).

In 2018 the Lindbom pick is the odd one out but for years people kept saying that was Allaire's pick. The Ragnarsson selection was baffling to me on draft day but in the 3rd round I can't really lose too much sleep over it.

I think Bobrov did a fine job, not superb. There was room for improvement, sure. But he was nowhere near bad enough to warrant being let go. This is more a regime change than Bobrov being fired for underperforming IMO.

 

[Machinehead]

Trading for Fox required just as much actual ability as drafting Point in the 69th round or whatever the f***.

And some people say it's development. Idk our guys seem to progress in Hartford since Drury took over. Then they get here and it's rather directionless. That's where the Rangers want to make a shift.

Changes in scouting are likely just a side effect of changes in what we're looking for overall. The scouting now has to fit what Drury wants to do.

Which is, I think, start moving the NHL team forward in a meaningful way. We're not blowing up the rebuild to trade for Bobby Holik, but we're hoping to make strides forward as a team, in the standings perhaps, but more importantly in a philosophical sense. We want to start taking shape.

 

[Machinehead]

Fair enough, I'm still just mystified how after all these years they still haven't drafted a franchise center of their own, one of the only teams in the league that hasn't, even at the very least a Dylan Larkin level.

And I really won't be satifisied until that happens.

Unless you're Tampa, you get those players with gimme draft picks. For all of our high picks, a winger was the consensus pick.

 

[nyr2k2]

When Clark stepped back, a lot of people seems to think Bobrov was up next. I argued that was unlikely as Drury would probably want his own guy and our European picks seemed to be just so-so under Bobrov. I didn't expect him to be let go outright, but I guess if they're looking to build a new brain trust, it makes sense.

 

[Amazing Kreiderman]

I mean the Kakko pick was gonna be made no matter who was scouting but thats pretty underwhelming outside of finding Lundkvist Kravtsov and Chytil in the 1st round. Everything outside of the 1st round is pretty much nothing.

What are your expectations outside the first round?

 

[Trxjw]

Hang on. So the Rangers didn't develop Fox but we're giving credit to the Lightning for developing Point? Damn near tore my ACL trying to follow those gymnastics.

 

[JT Kreider]

Hang on. So the Rangers didn't develop Fox but we're giving credit to the Lightning for developing Point? Damn near tore my ACL trying to follow those gymnastics.

I'm not talking about development of the team as a whole; but Fox is obviously irrelevant when we are talking about the DRAFTING strategy/personnel.

And the Rangers did NOTHING to earn Fox when he was coming here regardless, we could have had an actual robot as GM and Fox would still be a Ranger and a damn good one at that, he was practically a finished product coming out of Harvard, some players are just destined for greatness and you don't need to develop them, rather just get out of the way and not screw them up.

I don't take away credit from Boston for drafting Pastrnak or McAvoy in the mid to late 1st round or the Canes for drafting Aho in the 2nd round or the Isles for drafting Barzal in the mid 1st or the Jets for drafting Connor late in the 1st... I'm very confused why they don't get credit there.

That is putting some serious regard on the development part of it, when you need to draft the player first

When you look at how Boston totally screwed up in 2015 it's not "oh man they horribly developed Senyshyn and Zboril but did such a great job with Pastrnak and McAvoy", that makes no sense.

 

[Crease]

What are your expectations outside the first round?

A lot of fans want mid round steals without realizing Buchnevich is exactly that.

 

[Oscar Lindberg]

Frankly I’m a little surprised JD’s son in law has stuck around but I guess scouting director jobs in the NHL don’t come along super often

The phrasing from Larry in his article is weird though about the European scouts. “European scouts will be advised as needed”

 

[Amazing Kreiderman]

A lot of fans want mid round steals without realizing Buchnevich is exactly that.

If we look past the 1st round, here are my findings

2016 draft: Picked Sean Day 81st overall. Best EU player drafted after that was Jesper Bratt 162nd overall

2017 draft: Picked Brandon Crawley 123rd overall. Best EU player drafted after that was Sebastian Aho 139th overall (who was also 21 years old)

2018 draft: The Lindbom pick in round 2 is obvious, but who was the best EU player we missed out on? Yegor Sharangovich 141st overall (who was 19 years old)

2019 draft: Picked Karl Henriksson 49th overall. Best EU player drafted after that? I guess Puistola, or maybe Honka, or Kokkonen? Can't really say I lost sleep over missing out on them and I was a big Puistola fan in his draft year.

What players did our EU scouts sleep on outside round 1 exactly? Are we going to blame them for not drafting Jesper Bratt who fell to round 6?

 

[AlternateSideParking]

Clearly Drury didn’t like the way things were going. Whether he’s a Sather puppet remains to be seen.

Personally, I liked the way the kids are progressing. Tough division. We’ll see several take leaps forward next season.

Drury is someone I just can’t get myself to like.

 

[CLW]

the entire draft personnel/strategy is due for a massive overhaul, they haven't drafted a single elite high end offensive talent

lol

 

[Entrancemperium]

Drury is cleaning house.

 

[RangersFan1994]

Frankly I’m a little surprised JD’s son in law has stuck around but I guess scouting director jobs in the NHL don’t come along super often

The phrasing from Larry in his article is weird though about the European scouts. “European scouts will be advised as needed”

Going North American tough hockey players this seems. Less finesse and more size skilled grit guys like Foligno, Jooner types.

 

[Trxjw]

I'm not talking about development of the team as a whole; but Fox is obviously irrelevant when we are talking about the DRAFTING strategy/personnel.

And the Rangers did NOTHING to earn Fox when he was coming here regardless, we could have had an actual robot as GM and Fox would still be a Ranger and a damn good one at that, he was practically a finished product coming out of Harvard, some players are just destined for greatness and you don't need to develop them, rather just get out of the way and not screw them up.

I don't take away credit from Boston for drafting Pastrnak or McAvoy in the mid to late 1st round or the Canes for drafting Aho in the 2nd round or the Isles for drafting Barzal in the mid 1st or the Jets for drafting Connor late in the 1st... I'm very confused why they don't get credit there.

That is putting some serious regard on the development part of it, when you need to draft the player first

When you look at how Boston totally screwed up in 2015 it's not "oh man they horribly developed Senyshyn and Zboril but did such a great job with Pastrnak and McAvoy", that makes no sense.

Wasn't talking about you specifically. Just simply saying that the people who don't give the Rangers credit for developing Fox can't turn around and give the Lightning credit for developing Point. If the same logic applies, then Moose Jaw developed Point the same way Harvard developed Fox. Sure, the Rangers didn't draft Fox but they did trade for him and pull him out of college. They spent assets to get him so even if he may have ended up here regardless, they did pull the trigger to make a trade to get him here sooner.

That's because scouting goes far beyond who the team selects on day 1 and 2 of the draft. Those same amateur scouts keep scouting those same kids after other teams take them. Those draft day lists remain when trade opportunities come up. That's how the team ends up targeting a guy like Lindgren in a Nash trade. It's how the GM decides if he wants the 1st rounder this year, or next year, because the scouts are telling him how strong the class is and what might be available at #24 this year vs next.

The Rangers have done are one of the better drafting teams in the league over the last decade despite being quite light on picks for a significant part of it. There have been some whiffs and the jury is still out on a lot of guys but their record at the draft table is nowhere near as bad as some people claim it to be. For all the praise the Lightning get they have a pretty big whiff for every mid round success story.

 

[Edge]

Drury is someone I just can’t get myself to like.

It’ll be interesting to see what reputation he establishes for himself.

There have been a lot of raised eyebrows over the last few weeks.

 

[Edge]

Maybe but 4 of the bad picks came in rounds 1-3

That's tough though. Your first round picks have slightly more than a 37 percent chance of playing 100 or more NHL games. In the second round, the odds drop to a little over 17 percent. By the third round your odds drop below 14 percent. They keep declining from there.

In the Rangers case, we also have to acknowledge that two of our top prospects are European, not including Chytil, Kakko and Shesterkin who will not be considered rookies next season.

I also feel pretty comfortable with the fact that our guys pegged Pettersson as a target in 2017, and Lundell was one of their primary targets in 2020.

To MachineHead's point, there is always room for improvement. I'm of the mindset that Bobrov leaving isn't the end of the world, but it wasn't a move that was long overdue either.

 

[RangerBoy]

Don't forget Justin Sather and Marshall Davidson are still employed by the team as scouts!

Definitely nothing wrong with the New York Rangers scouting department!

Those are no show jobs.