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Rangers select Vitali Kravtsov with the ninth pick of the draft

June 22, 2018, 8:39 PM ET [1431 Comments]
Jan Levine
New York Rangers Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT
The Rangers selected Vitali Kravtsov passing on Oliver Wahsltrom Evan Bouchard and Noah Dobson. I am stunned. When Wahlstrom was sitting there, he seemed to be the perfect choice, as the team needed a sniper or a stud right-handed blue liner, like Bouchard or Dobson. i don't know what Gord Clark or Jeff Gorton was thinking.

Leading up the Rangers pick, here is who went off the board:
Buffalo - Rasmus Dahlin, matches our mock draft
Carolina - Andrei Svechnikov, matches our mock draft
Montréal – Jesperi Kotkaniemi (our mock draft -Filip Zadina)
Ottawa - Brady Tkachuk (our mock draft, Noah Dobson)
Arizona - Barrett Hayton (our mock draft, Oliver Wahlstrom)
Detroit - Filip Zadina (our mock draft, Quinn Hughes)
Vancouver - Quinn Hughes (our mock draft, Brady Tkachuk)
Chicago - Adam Boqvist, matches our mock draft

All the mock drafts were killed when Hayton went fifth to Arizona. The top-two were set in stone and Montreal did go for center in Kotkaniemi instead of Zadina. The same with Ottawa grabbing Tkachuk, who was rumored to be a possible New York target.I would have traded up to get Zadina, who fell to Detroit with the Red Wings passing on Hughes, who looked like a lock to stay in Michigan. Vancouver gets the blue liner that I thought they might take, taking advantage of Hughes sliding down one pick to the Canucks. Boqvist was a surprising pick for Chicago, who seemed to be all in on Wahlstrom.

The Rangers, as of press time on this blog, will also pick 26 and 28 in the first round.
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