Draft Review and Sather's Latest

The Rangers had what is now a typical Ranger draft. Which is to say, a quality weekend at the draft site. They started out with 4 picks, and ended up with 4 players, but not before swapping this year's 3 for yet another 3 next year (that makes 3), and trading next year's 5 to get back into the draft this year. This is how good teams draft. They target guys and are willing to play a little poker to get them at their price. They didn't have any high picks, so they didn't get any can't miss kids or anyone who could turn pro this year or next, but they did get 4 more Ranger types.

Interestingly, they took 2 Americans, a Swede and a Dane. So that half the draft was the responsibility of the American team of scouts and the other half was straight Anders Hedberg. I think it's cool that one of my favorite players growing up has become such a strong contributor during the past few drafts and prospect swaps.

Overall, the team added skating, skating and more skating. All of the players have good size and project to get bigger, while also possessing nice upside based on what they've already shown. So it was about as good as we could have hoped for picking where we did. Just another great job by Gordie, Jeff, and the Scouts. It's fun having a good system again.

As for the Sather comments, he said today that the Rangers were going to be aggressive in Free Agency because that's mostly money, rather than the trade market that costs assets and money. I think the timing is right for that attitude. Let the kids develop and let's not have another early `90s prospect sell-off.

The prospect camp starts Monday. UFA starts next Sunday. Go Rangers!