Rangers Draft Review, Pt.2

Seeing some articles that say the Rangers are worse now than they were when the season ended.  I'd like to welcome those writers to the salary cap era.  And I'd also like to explain that the hockey draft, like the baseball draft is about the mid to longterm future, unlike the football and basketball drafts that are primarily about next year.

Thus, though the Rangers have roster issues right now, so do the rest of the teams who have a tight cap and RFA's and UFA's -- and the draft isn't where they get fixed.   They get fixed starting this week and all the way to the trade deadline.

So those articles were at least premature, and they already replaced the two roster players they traded.

The draft itself was a little different than usual.  Over the Gordie Clark era, the Rangers strongly comitted to drafting North American skaters.  That has been changing slightly and more Euros have ended up in the last couple of one-less drafts.   Of their 7 picks yesterday, fully five were Euros and only two, Gropp and Miller were North American.  No Americans were picked.

I don't think that's the product of a conscious decision, but trying to find value where the Rangers have been picking probably caused them to broaden their scouting efforts.

And while, the countries of origin are different for these kids, they all fit the Ranger model of fast skaters with hands. It seems the WHL guys will be only guys playing in juniors next year, unless the goalie returns to Green Bay, and we'll have to figure how to follow the rest of them as they develop.  They do seem to have what the Rangers like to draft.