With few picks, Rangers will mostly be observers at draft
The Rangers are one of 15 teams who have five or fewer selections in the supposed-tobe-loaded 2023 NHL Draft this week in Nashville, Tenn.
While teams such as the Blackhawks, Canadiens, Sharks, Coyotes, Flyers, Red Wings, Kraken and the hometown Predators have all stacked their cupboards with 10 or more draft picks for this year, the Blueshirts will have to be a lot more methodical about how they want to use their selections.
Of course, every one of those aforementioned clubs — aside from the Kraken and Rangers — did not compete in the playoffs this season.
The Rangers are in a completely different place than those organizations and are more focused on the current on-ice product rather than the on the future.
That doesn’t mean the draft, which will begin with the first round on Wednesday and continue with rounds 2-7 on Thursday, isn’t as important for the Rangers.
Eight players on the Rangers’ projected roster were originally drafted by the franchise, which is a solid number for any organization to show for their recent draft track record. One of those, by the way, is Vezina Trophy-winning goaltender Igor Shesterkin (118th overall in 2014).
The Rangers have clear-cut organizational needs now that a bulk of the heavily anticipated players who were drafted during their rebuild have broken onto the NHL scene.
In regards to the players who are already on the books in some way, they are extremely deficient in right wingers and right-handed defensemen.
Centers have also been hard to come by, with Filip Chytil (21st overall in 2017) currently serving as the only organizationally grown middle man in the everyday lineup.
With their own firstround pick, which will be the 23rd-overall selection, the Rangers could gun for a center first.
David Edstrom, a big two-way centerman out of Sweden, is an option. At 6-foot-3 with a left-handed shot, Edstrom most recently averaged a point per game in his home country’s junior league.
If the Rangers do want to take a center with their top pick, Wisconsin’s Charlie Stramel, the Western Hockey League’s Brayden Yager and the Ontario Hockey League’s Calum Ritchie might be available at No. 23.
Oliver Bonk, a wellrounded right-handed blueliner out of the OHL, could also be there for the Rangers’ taking.
It appears unlikely that Quentin Musty would slide that far down the first-round draft board after he put up 78 points in 53 games for the OHL’s Sudbury Wolves this past season.
If the offensively inclined forward is available, however, the Rangers will have to consider snagging him. Even if they’d have to either add him to an already log-jammed left side or turn him into a right winger.
The Rangers have the Avalanche’s third-rounder (No. 91 overall) after acquiring it at last year’s draft in Montreal in the deal that sent former backup goalie Alexandar Georgiev to Colorado.
Taking a right winger should be a priority at some point. The United States Hockey League’s William Whitelaw, Roman Kantserov out of Russia and the USHL’s Zaccharya Wisdom may be available that late in Round 3.
The Rangers also obtained the Oilers’ fifth-round selection when they sent prospect Jayden Grubbe to Edmonton in May. American goalie Stephen Peck could fall to that 152nd-overall pick, or right wingers Nicholas Vantassell and Tanner Adams, who are both out of the USHL.
With two selections in the sixth round, one of which they received from the Jets along with Andrew Copp ahead of the 2021-22 trade deadline, the Rangers may want to focus on defensemen if they haven’t taken one or two already.
The 6-5, 196-pound Kristian Kostadinski may be available at 178th overall, but probably wouldn’t fall further to their final pick which, at the moment, is No. 183 The Rangers could also look to take right-handed defenseman Chris Able, who is committed to Ohio State, or Finnish netminder Juha Jatkola with either of their last selections.
Draft-day trades are always a possibility. President and general manager Chris Drury could always dangle his firstrounder to better the Rangers’ current lineup.
However, the Rangers already went without a first-round pick at last year’s draft and may want to keep it — especially in a draft class that has been hailed as one of the deeper ones in recent memory.
It would simply have to be the right deal with an immediate impact for a win-now Rangers team.
That’s just the reality of where they are at right now.