The Rangers' prospects kick off practicing as a unit today for the Traverse City tournament, which starts tomorrow. Several of those prospects resulted in New York’s pipeline receiving a first overall rating in terms of organizational rankings. That list includes Corey Pronman from The Athletic, where the NYR are also ranked #1 (https://theathletic.com/1126654/2019/09/05/2019-nhl-farm-system-rankings-no-1-new-york-rangers/). That rise is a major upgrade from even a few seasons’ ago when the Blueshirts were a bottom-five ranked organization.
As we all know, prospects are just that, prospects. There is no guarantee that a top-1o prospect will pan out or that a player ranked well down on the list won’t break out and become the team’s best asset. All you can hope is that the talent of the player and players at the top of the list resulting in that lofty rankings pans out and lifts the team to that next level. For example, in 2016-17, as was pointed out to me on Twitter, the top-five ranked systems in the NHL per Pronman were Toronto, Arizona, Winnipeg, Columbus and Carolina. Look where those teams have ended up the past few seasons. What this highlights is that scouting is still an inexact science and that prospects must be supplemented with existing talent, either by trade or via free agency. In addition, players who have already “graduated… if you will skews the ranking as well. Plus, one or two players can markedly push up a team’s ranking. For example, Tampa was ranked 14th but Pronman notes they have two top-end players in Brayden Point and Andrei Vasilevskiy plus depth but not additional star power. Give me those two with the depth and I will take my chances and they turned Jonathan Drouin into Mikael Sergachev along with using that depth to get Ryan McDonagh, further evidencing my point above on trades.
Traverse City has game action starting Friday. As we discussed on the blog and in the comments, all games with be streamed by Fox Sports Go. In addition, the Rangers site will be streaming the games, releasing a unique link daily, likely via Twitter, so be on the look out for it. I posted my Traverse City blogs last week and Sunday. Here are the links again: https://www.hockeybuzz.com/blog.php?post_id=101102 and https://www.hockeybuzz.com/blog/Jan-Levine/Traverse-City-tournament-viewing-and-key-dates-regarding-the-CBA-upcoming/89/101170. Names like Kaapo Kappo, Vitali Kravtsov, Adam Fox and Igor Shesterkin are already on the radar for the future. But we will also get our first live look at Karl Henrikkson, Tarmo Reunanen and Matthew Robertson. In addition, can Yegor Rykov take a step forward in his battle to make the roster and how much work will Adam Huska receive.
The season is now less than a month away, the slight chill in the air in New York today is evidence that summer is winding down and fall approaching. We still wait to see when Brendan Lemieux and Tony DeAngelo sign their qualifying offers or will their holdout last into training camp – which starts next week – or into the season. In their absence, who steps up to fill their role. Plus, will New York offer PTOs to anyone? Rick Carpinello reported that Michael Haley will receive one, why, I have no idea. DSP is heading to Calgary, Troy Brouwer will attend camp with the Panthers while Drew Stafford inked a PTO with Minnesota. A handful of vets remain unsigned, adding competition and a little nudge to Lemieux and ADA by inking a few to a PTO would not be the worst idea in the world.
One more thing:
Brian Leetch. Adam Graves. Rod Gilbert.
— New York Rangers (@NYRangers) September 4, 2019
The legends of #NYR will be back at it on Oct. 27 for the inaugural New York Rangers Alumni Classic vs. Boston @TheGarden to benefit the Rangers Assist mission of growing youth hockey in the Tri-State area. Get your tickets today! ⬇ï¸