Rangers Prospect Poll - Summer 2024 - #5

[Amazing Kreiderman]

Gotcha.

And yeah, we're all spitballing with our slight differences in rankings, so I value the hivemind consensus even when I disagree personally, or think a dissenter might be onto something for or against a specific prospect.

BMB vs Laba is an interesting fine point. It's the minutiae, so it's interesting to see the gut feeling to gut feeling difference. "Here are two similar things. Gun to your head, which one?" That's the compelling stuff.

Almost everyone agrees with the "broad brush" stuff. And those who don't, make it widely known and get judged by time.

I think we often get carried away and double down too much on what we all know is just opinions on something that's impossible to predict.

In the case of Laba vs McConnell-Barker, it's going to be interesting to see how they develop moving forward.

 

[eco's bones]

The 1st liner I see is Perreault. The possible 2nd liner or middle winger is Othmann. After that I think we have a lot of guys who are going to play in the NHL but they'll all be 3rd/4th line guys. Rempe and Edstrom are the closest but both as 4th liners. Berard, Sykora, Laba, BMB, Chmelar all look really good for future NHL jobs. Roobroeck, Bollard, Lamb, Vaisanen and Korzcak also could turn into players if they take more steps.

D right now centers around Emery--top 4, Mancini--big bodied good skating defensive D and Fortescue coming off an impressive freshman year at BC. The drafting of Emery shores up one of our D prospect weakness quite a lot. Garand is a pretty good goalie prospect.

 

[PuckLuck3043]

This prospect pool is pretty damn good considering the Rangers have been one of the top teams in the league the last 3 years. Drury has dealt picks but he has held on to nearly every one of the prospects. There are a good number of players who are going to have solid NHL careers.

 

[kovazub94]

Straight up, I think we're all going to find out that we're sleeping on Victor Mancini. He's just going to turn out to be one of those guys who is steady eddy right from the get go.

Yup, he got my vote to be added.

 

[kovazub94]

I have no doubt the Rangers will have 2-3 guys out of the group after Perreault, Othmann and Berard as the depth in addition to already well-projecting Rempe and Edstrom and the question is whether there might be a bit higher projection from at least one of these. Purely from the odds perspective given the number of “candidates” in this group. So even in this dire state that’s being portrayed from the lack of draft picks available - in the not so far future the Rangers might have 3 top-6 forwards to add to Lafreniere, Zibanejad and Trocheck (and Chytil) - a group beyond the next couple of seasons.

 

[eco's bones]

My remembrance of Laba from watching highlights last year and he scored several OT and several shorthanded goals is he wins a lot of footraces and turns a lot of D from the outside in. He's got pretty good size and doesn't mind the physical side of the game. He's a big moment player. He is by a good margin the most likely on his team to get the goal or make a play when his team needs it the most.

Mancini was first pairing on Nebraska-Omaha. Not a lot of offense but he was their shutdown guy. After he signed with the Rangers and went to Hartford it wasn't more than a couple games before his coach was raving about him. For a big guy he can move but he's a defense first guy. Of our prospects he's pretty close to the top of who I'm looking forward to seeing in training camp and hopefully exhibition games. Every team needs offense from their defense but you need defense from your defense too and size, skating etc. etc.

 

[HockeyBasedNYC]

This prospect pool is pretty damn good considering the Rangers have been one of the top teams in the league the last 3 years. Drury has dealt picks but he has held on to nearly every one of the prospects. There are a good number of players who are going to have solid NHL careers.

Its definitely not as sexy as years past - but to me its all about GP, Othmann and Emery.

Especially Perreault.

If he pans out to be a game changer at the NHL level that could be a huge pick that could really change the dynamic of the team in 2 or 3 years.

If anyone else emerges that would be a cherry on top of what would be pretty much a decade's worth of a solid pipeline after years of being near the bottom of the pack.

 

[GoAwayPanarin]

To add to this, Laba was really a major play driver for his team and maybe the most dangerous forward for the team during the NCAA tourney. He was a leader. Laba is similar to Trocheck but I think Tro had more elite offensive skillset as a prospect. Laba isn't necessarily the guy who is flashing high end skill and an elite shot or playmaking ability. But he has decent speed, skill, tenacity and motor. Very easy kid to root for. I hope he continues to improve and get stronger.

With Laba, I can see a player there even if he doesn't score much at the higher levels. Similar to Berard, you can more immediately see an effective player based on translatable play style.

Yeah this is pretty spot on based off of what I've seen from him.

The one thing that really separates the 2 is the playmaking. Laba's game in that sense is pretty basic (not bad, but he makes the passes that are there and will pick up shot assists which are not definitely not a bad thing) where as Tro remains so incredibly underrated in his ability to dish the puck.

The one thing I love about Laba though is his absolute desire, almost unrelenting need to take the puck to the net. If you give him time and space he can pick a corner but his bread and butter is just getting the puck, driving to the inside of the ice and finishing.

I really wish he turned pro after last season. He and Roobroeck were both wtf picks who have only proven the scouting staff right so far.

 

[n8]

I love Berard too. I just think his ceiling in the NHL is still more likely to be a middle-six player. I think he's closer to the show than Othmann. So, in that respect, he's a head of Brennan.

Depending on his development trajectory, he could turn into a Brad-Marchand-lite. He could turn it up this year and become a PPG player in HFD. That would put him on a very similar development trajectory as Marchand.