Walt Poddubny had a couple of strong seasons right before Turcotte took over #8.
As do I. I also have my Stanley Cup Finals program with Messier & Graves signature on the cover. Still need to have Leetch & Richter sign it. One day I'll run into both of them....
Glad to see I'm not the only grey beard here that remembers Walt Poddubny, lol. But of more recent memory was a scrappy, blood and guts True Blue Ranger by the name of Brandon Prust.
I've been a fan for over 40 years and this by far is the deepest the Rangers talent/prospect pool has ever been in all three facets of the game.
Even in our lead up to the cup in 1994 our talent/prospect pool was not this deep. Yes, they were set in goal with Beezer & Richter. Defense with Leetch & James Patrick as the only home grown D-men that I can recall, and up front we had Amonte, Weight, Turcotte. But nothing in the system of any other value. Kovalev, Nemchinov, Zubov and Karpotsev, were really unknown quantities at the time they were drafted having never played the North American style game and them touching the ice at MSG was no guarantee.
Picking up Trouba, who is entering the prime of his career, and adding the likes of a Hughes or Kakko to an already deep system, gives me a great deal of hope.
Granted a lot of the players we are talking about have potential. But I'll take the potential of a Kravtsov, Rykov, Georgiev, Shesterkin, Miller, Fox, Rykov, Reunanen, Lindqvist, Hajek, Howden, Andersson, Chytil, Buchnevich, etc., over the days of being sold a bill of goods on the likes of Dube, Malhottra, Lundmark, Brendl and Cloutier.
In 1994 the Rangers gave up the farm to win the cup and it was based on true NHL experience not potential. No one was likely to give up much over the likes of Peter Ferraro, Chris Chihocki, Mike Hurlbut. So this is a pleasant departure from my years as a fan. It's nice to be in a position where they can trade "potential" and know that there's plenty of top flight potential from within to replace them.
