We often hear that an NHL team is built by the draft. With this concept in mind, the members of NHL.com did a little exercise to highlight which teams in the League have done it the best over the past 20 years.
Three members of our panel will each draft a starting formation – three forwards, two defenders, a goalkeeper – from among all the players drafted by a team since the 2000 Draft. A player selected by a member of the panel cannot be selected again by a of his colleagues.
To portray the New York Rangers, Hugues Marcil, LNH.com console operator, Sébastien Deschambault, LNH.com editorial director, and John Ciolfi, LNH.com senior producer, played the game.
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31 AND 31 RANGERS : Three issues to watch | Top five prospects | Analysis for poolers
Please note that this drill was done before the 2020 NHL Draft. The Rangers added several quality prospects at the last auction, including forward Alexis Lafrenière in the first place overall.
Rounds 1 and 2
Ciolfi: Henrik Lundqvist
Marcil : Derek Stepan
Deschambault : Marek Zidlicky
Deschambault : Igor Shesterkin
Marcil : Marc Staal
Ciolfi: Chris Kreider
Ciolfi: I had no choice but to select Lundqvist in the first row. Despite his mask, the Swede has been the face of the Rangers since 2005 and the franchise leader in regular season wins (459) and shutouts (64) and in the Stanley Cup playoffs (61; 10). King Henrik has been an elite goalie in the NHL for the majority of his career, so I couldn’t have ignored him. In attack, I chose Kreider, a fast forward who knows how to fill the net. He’s scored at least 20 goals in five of the past six seasons, and while he’s not the most consistent player, there are few other players on this list who can change the pace of a game like Kreider.
Video: NYR @ DET: Amazing Lundqvist skate stop
Marcil : Stepan has slowed down for the past two years, but in my opinion he’s one of the best players drafted by New York in 20 years. During his years with the Rangers, he was consistent as a clock, still amassing around fifty points per season. He is also a complete center, capable of advancing on the power play and collecting penalties. With Lundqvist already gone and only two top goalkeepers available, I suspected that I was going to be cut the rug out from under Seb with Shesterkin, so I made sure I had a good defensive back. . Staal is the perfect candidate. It is able to contain the opposing attackers and it imposes by its robustness. Since entering the NHL (2007-08), he is 27th among defensemen in body hitting (1307) and has a cumulative differential of plus-46.
Deschambault : The Rangers haven’t drafted a lot of offensive defensemen over the past 20 seasons, and that’s why I quickly switched to Zidlicky. With 417 career points (89 goals, 328 assists), more than 150 points ahead of the next fullback, Zidlicky is in a class of his own. I then turn to Shesterkin, since he is the only eligible Cerberus, other than Lundqvist, to have the makings of a true number one keeper. He might only have 12 games of NHL experience, but his stats are just mind-blowing in every league he’s played.
Rounds 3 and 4
Ciolfi: Carl Hagelin
Marcil : Brandon Dubinsky
Deschambault : J.T. Miller
Deschambault : Kaapo Kakko
Marcil : Ryan Callahan
Ciolfi: Brady Skjei
Ciolfi: After the selection of Kreider, I started the third round with another fast forward. Hagelin’s speed and shorthanded prowess helped turn the Pittsburgh Penguins into Stanley Cup champions in 2016 and 2017, so he and Kreider can establish a solid forward check against the opponent. On the defensive side, I turned to the young people. First, I chose Skjei. Expectations may have been a little too high for him after a promising first season in the NHL (39 points in 80 games), but the 26-year-old defenseman can still improve. He’s already a mobile defender who isn’t afraid to throw (545 shots in the past four seasons) and can make a power play contribution.
Marcil : I round out my forward trio with Dubinsky and Callahan, two tough players to face because they played a tough style while contributing on the scoresheet. Between 2007-08 and 2018-19, Callahan (2150) and Dubinsky (2149) were ninth and tenth, respectively, in body hitting among all NHL players. In his career, Dubinsky has scored 40 or more points on seven occasions and reached the 50-point mark twice, while accumulating 905 penalty minutes. For his part, Callahan reached 40 points four times, scoring more than 20 goals in those four seasons. This is not to mention the leadership aspect, while he was captain of the Rangers between 2011-12 and 2013-14. And like Stepan, Dubinsky and Callahan are two forwards who can contribute over 200 feet.
Deschambault : In Miller, I get my hands on an incredibly versatile player who will be able to help my team on special teams. He’s always been able to amass around 50 points per season since joining the NHL full-time, but he’s shown this season with the Vancouver Canucks that he can produce more when paired with players from foreground. He had already set career highs of 27 goals and 72 points in 69 games when the season was interrupted. And if Kakko did not have the hoped-for rookie season with only 23 points in 66 games, he remains doomed to an excellent future. A winger with an imposing size, I am convinced that he will form a dynamic duo with Miller.
Video: NYR @ DAL: Kakko scores his second goal
Rounds 5 and 6
Ciolfi: Ryan Graves
Marcil : Fedor Tyutin
Deschambault : Artem Anisimov
Deschambault : Michael Del Zotto
Marcil : Al Montoya
Ciolfi: Pavel Buchnevich
Ciolfi: Instead of Tyutin or Del Zotto, I added another young defender in Graves. It’s a risk to predict a player’s success after his rookie season, but the fact that he’s already led the NHL with a plus-40 rating this season shows me that the young defenseman is reliable and capable of becoming. a leading defenseman in the NHL. To complete the exercise, I added Buchnevich. As in the case of Kreider, inconstancy is a problem for the young Russian, but alongside Kreider and Mika Zibanejad this season, he’s established a personal mark with 46 points in just 68 games. If he becomes a more consistent scorer and stays healthy, he could take his game to another level in the coming seasons.
Video: NYR @ COL: Buchnevich creates equality late in 3rd
Marcil : To round out my defense, I’m not sorry to get my hands on Tyutin, an 872-game career NHL veteran. As Seb pointed out when he got his hands on Zidlicky, the Rangers have drafted few offensive full-backs in 20 years, but Tyutin still had a knack for restarting the attack. The Russian could notably play in the power play, having amassed 12 points or more five times in this facet of the game. Montoya will be my goalie, a bit by default. He’s been in the back-up role his entire career, but he still rode his bump for nine seasons in the NHL, between 2008-09 and 2017-18.
Deschambault : I’m very happy to see Anisimov still being available at this point in the draft. Author of eight seasons of 15 or more goals in his career, Anisimov is able to complete two offensive players, just as he is able to fulfill defensive missions. With 178 goals, he ranks second behind Dubinsky among eligible players, and he ranks fifth in points (367). And after claiming the best attacking defender in the first round in Zidlicky, I get the one who is third among the full backs available in Del Zotto. If he could not keep the pace of his first three seasons (89 points in 204 games), Del Zotto managed to adapt his game and now has 657 games in the NHL.
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