TSP: New York Rangers Prospects and Scouting Reports

[LastWordArmy]

A look at the Rangers top 10 prospects (plus one sleeper drafted in the 4th round or later) including scouting reports.

TSP: New York Rangers Prospects - Last Word on Hockey

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[eco's bones]

A very good read.

 

[The Crypto Guy]

Basically just looks like our prospect polls aside from Henriksson in their top 10.

Not sure why they graduated 20 year old Andersson who didn't meet their 50 game limit

 

[LastWordArmy]

Basically just looks like our prospect polls aside from Henriksson in their top 10.

Not sure why they graduated 20 year old Andersson who didn't meet their 50 game limit

Miller is ahead of Fox on your poll, its the opposite here.

Robertson is also moved up quite a few spots in our rankings (As is Henriksson)

Andersson is at 49 games played. He's basically there. Its one thing to round up a goalie (and goalies take longer) 7 games which we choose not to do... but Andersson was so close we did. We just felt that Rangers fans have seen enough of Andersson that they don't really need a report on him and that wouldn't really provide the reader much value. He's one game off and has averaged nearly 11:00 per game.

 

[Kovalev27]

He lost me at elite skating ability for Fox

 

[romba]

A look at the Rangers top 10 prospects (plus one sleeper drafted in the 4th round or later) including scouting reports.

TSP: New York Rangers Prospects - Last Word on Hockey

In depth analysis, thanks for sharing

 

[Ola]

He lost me at elite skating ability for Fox

I think it was a great read but the Fox skating part should have needed some more context, but it’s not easy to always put these things into writing. Fox is great at getting to the right places on the ice, and that includes breaking away from forecheckers and stuff like that. But you don’t exactly put together an instruction video on how to skate with footage of him so that part could be a bit misleading. It’s something that maybe will hold him back at times in the NHL, but it don’t have to be.

 

[Jacques Strap]

Good read and good order but I would have Tarmo Reunanen as my sleeper. I think he will surprise a lot of people. Also, Matt Robinson was a quality pick. Very good D, great IQ and great skater for his size. Top 4 D for sure.

 

[GAGLine]

Why is Huska never included when talking about our goalie depth?

 

[Leetch3]

Why is Huska never included when talking about our goalie depth?

why should he be? make the case for him...i'm always ready to be hyped up for another prospect

 

[nyr2k2]

why should he be? make the case for him...i'm always ready to be hyped up for another prospect

Before he got to UConn, the 15-16 season, he was in the USHL, where he was totally dominant and won the USHL Goaltender of the Year award, leading the league in GAA and SV% and winning First Team All Star honors.

As a Freshman, he was having a very good season behind a totally porous UConn defense that yielded 33 shots per game. He was great to start, suffered an injury which he tried to play through, eventually had to sit, then came back to finish strong. He won Rookie of the Week a couple times, and had the ninth-best SV% for rookie NCAA goalies despite playing on a bad team. His Sophomore year was essentially a mirror of his Freshman year--solid performances peppered with Defensive Player of the Week awards behind a pretty mediocre team. He again missed time with injury. His Junior year started out very well, but he then went through a string of bad starts and lost his job to Vomacka, a promising pick of the Preds. He was signed towards the end of the season.

In Hartford, he was shelled his first three times out (like everyone else in Hartford, including Georgiev). His subsequent six games, he was great, with a .911 SV% (that's great for Hartford), despite the dumpster fire around him helping him to an 0-3-2 record in the process. I watched a couple of his starts and he looked very impressive, once he had settle in.

He has twice represented overmatched Slovakian teams in the WJC (U20) as well as once in the U18 version. If you remember watching him at either of those, there were a couple games where he looked like the only player on the ice for Slovakia. He also had some games where he was blown up, again, IMO, because Slovakia was bad, leading to his overall mediocre-to-poor numbers. In all three of his WJC appearances, he was named as a Top Three Player on Team at the end of the tournament. He has also played in a handful of other international games with the Slovak junior teams, and would have likely played more if he weren't an NCAA player.

He has good size at 6'4", 220 and good athleticism. His positioning has gotten better since we drafted him and should only improve with AHL/NHL coaching, though he does need some rebound control. He has all the tools to be a starting-caliber goaltender, if he can continue to take steps forward. I wont argue that anyone needs to be "excited" by him, but he's definitely a prospect worth watching and I think that if Hartford can get it together as a team, he could have a really nice rookie professional season (or in Greenville, wherever he ends up).

I think he's somewhat overlooked because his statistical performance at UConn doesn't blow anyone away. But I've followed him very closely, and aside from whatever happened to him in the middle of last season, he's been very good. He was his USHL team's best player, he was often UConn's best player, he was generally Slovakia's top player (or in the top few), etc.

 

[The Crypto Guy]

Before he got to UConn, the 15-16 season, he was in the USHL, where he was totally dominant and won the USHL Goaltender of the Year award, leading the league in GAA and SV% and winning First Team All Star honors.

As a Freshman, he was having a very good season behind a totally porous UConn defense that yielded 33 shots per game. He was great to start, suffered an injury which he tried to play through, eventually had to sit, then came back to finish strong. He won Rookie of the Week a couple times, and had the ninth-best SV% for rookie NCAA goalies despite playing on a bad team. His Sophomore year was essentially a mirror of his Freshman year--solid performances peppered with Defensive Player of the Week awards behind a pretty mediocre team. He again missed time with injury. His Junior year started out very well, but he then went through a string of bad starts and lost his job to Vomacka, a promising pick of the Preds. He was signed towards the end of the season.

In Hartford, he was shelled his first three times out (like everyone else in Hartford, including Georgiev). His subsequent six games, he was great, with a .911 SV% (that's great for Hartford), despite the dumpster fire around him helping him to an 0-3-2 record in the process. I watched a couple of his starts and he looked very impressive, once he had settle in.

He has twice represented overmatched Slovakian teams in the WJC (U20) as well as once in the U18 version. If you remember watching him at either of those, there were a couple games where he looked like the only player on the ice for Slovakia. He also had some games where he was blown up, again, IMO, because Slovakia was bad, leading to his overall mediocre-to-poor numbers. In all three of his WJC appearances, he was named as a Top Three Player on Team at the end of the tournament. He has also played in a handful of other international games with the Slovak junior teams, and would have likely played more if he weren't an NCAA player.

He has good size at 6'4", 220 and good athleticism. His positioning has gotten better since we drafted him and should only improve with AHL/NHL coaching, though he does need some rebound control. He has all the tools to be a starting-caliber goaltender, if he can continue to take steps forward. I wont argue that anyone needs to be "excited" by him, but he's definitely a prospect worth watching and I think that if Hartford can get it together as a team, he could have a really nice rookie professional season (or in Greenville, wherever he ends up).

I think he's somewhat overlooked because his statistical performance at UConn doesn't blow anyone away. But I've followed him very closely, and aside from whatever happened to him in the middle of last season, he's been very good. He was his USHL team's best player, he was often UConn's best player, he was generally Slovakia's top player (or in the top few), etc.

That doesn't really sound very encouraging. Lots of excuses and he seems wildly inconsistent. He really hasn't done much and is being ranked properly IMO (well in our polls at least)

 

[nyr2k2]

That doesn't really sound very encouraging. Lots of excuses and he seems wildly inconsistent. He really hasn't done much and is being ranked properly IMO (well in our polls at least)

Wildly inconsistent? His Freshman and Sophomore years, his stat line was basically identical. The only fluctuation in his college career came his Junior year where his game fell off mid-season. He was as consistent as they come in his full USHL season and was the best goalie in the league. Hasn't really done anything? Again, best goalie in the USHL. One of the top freshman goaltenders in NCAA. Multiple weekly awards in NCAA. On poor teams. Always Top Three on his three WJC teams. That doesn't count for anything? The only "excuses" in there are that his NCAA team, his national team, and Hartford in his debut were all garbage--which isn't even an excuse, it's a completely true statement.

Honestly, I don't care where he's ranked in this poll. The question was, "why is he not mentioned with our other goalie depth?" followed by "'Why should he be?" and I tried to answer the latter.

 

[The Crypto Guy]

Wildly inconsistent? His Freshman and Sophomore years, his stat line was basically identical. The only fluctuation in his college career came his Junior year where his game fell off mid-season. He was as consistent as they come in his full USHL season and was the best goalie in the league. Hasn't really done anything? Again, best goalie in the USHL. One of the top freshman goaltenders in NCAA. Multiple weekly awards in NCAA. On poor teams. Always Top Three on his three WJC teams. That doesn't count for anything? The only "excuses" in there are that his NCAA team, his national team, and Hartford in his debut were all garbage--which isn't even an excuse, it's a completely true statement.

Honestly, I don't care where he's ranked in this poll. The question was, "why is he not mentioned with our other goalie depth?" followed by "'Why should he be?" and I tried to answer the latter.

He seems to play great, then have bad stretches. That came across as inconsistent. Plus things like saying he had the 9th best Save % among rookie goalies seems like you were really reaching for anything, which is why i said the report wasnt very encouraging. That stat isn't impressive considering there aren't many freshman goalies playing more than a handful of games.

 

[nyr2k2]

He seems to play great, then have bad stretches.

Isn't that pretty much every non-elite goaltending prospect, as well as many of the elite prospects?

Plus things like saying he had the 9th best Save % among rookie goalies seems like you were really reaching for anything, which is why i said the report wasnt very encouraging. That stat isn't impressive considering there aren't many freshman goalies playing more than a handful of games.

Okay, he was ninth out of 25 qualified freshman goalies. A couple of the guys ahead of him play in the garbage, irrelevant Atlantic Hockey conference. One of the guys ahead of him was Jake Oettinger, who is a stud. Wall was .002% ahead of him. He came in and unseated a senior, who was actually pretty decent for UConn, which is an accomplishment in itself. Starting as a freshman is an accomplishment in itself. You point out there aren't many true freshman starting in the NCAA, and there's a reason for that--it's hard to do.

So, yeah, being among the top handful of freshman is an accomplishment. I'm not "reaching for anything" when I listed off a bunch of other accolades. If you think this one in particular doesn't matter, I think you're lacking the proper context by which to evaluate it.