NEW YORK RANGERS DRAFT 2022 2022-09-02 From Game 7 of the Conference finals to missing the playoffs in a span of the year. "We just couldn't hack it - simple as that." GM Martin Auzins takes all the blame for the downfall which saw a team that everyone feared to play to a team that just didn't care enough. What went wrong: Struggle to score. Struggle to stay out of the box. Struggle to keep the puck crossing the line. "You fucking name it" - You could hear the frustration out of the GM. Stars not cutting it: Patrick Kane went from 109 points to 68. Mark Scheifele went from 104 points to 70. Chris Kreider started the season with 6 goals in 12 games with the Ducks and finished with 11 goals in 67 games with the Rangers. 3 main players on the forward front were struggling big time and Igor Shesterkin's first full season saw the 26 year old netminder allow more than 3 goals per game. Reasons for optimism: Youth gone wild: 2020 10th overall pick Anton Lundell is on the verge of signing his ELC with the Rangers and is expected to fight for a top 9 spot from the get go. 2021 2nd overall pick William Eklund will look to take the next step in his development as he sets his sights to coming over to North America soon. 2021 27th pick young Olen Zellweger had an exceptional season with Everett and just finished the U20 World Junior championship as the best scoring defenseman. Star power in leadership group: The young players will grow around forwards Patrick Kane, Jonathan Huberdeau, Mark Scheifele, and defensemen Jaccob Slavin and Devon Toews, who could be a Norris Trophy finalists. One of them could be the Rangers' next captain as it's still undecided for next season. Shesterkin shines: Any questions about the future of New York's goaltending will be answered by Shesterkin. The real life Vezina trophy winner will look to have bigger impact in EHE in the upcoming season. He is 69-13-4 with a 2.07 GAA, .935 save percentage and six shutouts in 53 games, and the No. 1 goalie now and for the future. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - THE DRAFT Rangers entered the draft holding only one draft pick in 4th round. From the draft rankings down below you will be able to tell that Rangers didn't do that much draft prep as other years because depth chart is quite heavy with young talent and Rangers felt that they need to work with what they have but that changed quickly ever since real life Rangers drafted Adam Sykora and what he showed at their prospect camp. Rangers had trade discussions through out the whole first round to see if there is a fit and they finally found one. TRADE: Rangers acquired a pick that will allow them to draft who they want but they lose a top 6 forward in Cam Atkinson in the meanwhile. Atkinson had 29 points in 37 games with the Rangers this past season and he is signed for 3 more years. But along two picks in the draft Rangers acquired young Swiss forward Philipp Kurashev who is going to battle for a spot in the lineup soon enough. SELECTION: Second Round – #50 overall - Adam Sykora, LW NYR PRE-DRAFT RANK: 13th ranked forward Adam Sykora is a Slovak prospect who plays for HK Nitra in Slovakia’s top professional hockey league. The 17-year-old finished the 2021-22 regular season with 10 goals and 17 points in 46 games. He was also part of Slovakia’s national team for the World Junior Championships, where he didn’t total a point in two games before the IIHF canceled the tournament due to COVID. The first thing I look for in a player is his skating ability, and Sykora has it, as he’s a speedy skater with a good stride. Not only is he a speedy skater, but he has a quickness about his game, especially when he’s forechecking. He’s quite the aggressive forechecker and is quick to jump on the puck. That’s something else to like about Sykora’s game: his motor. Though he’s a 17-year-old playing in a pro league, he’s not afraid to get in on the forecheck and work to gain the puck. At the same time, there are moments where he gets knocked off the puck easily because he doesn’t have the strength yet. And it’s not only on the forecheck. It tends to happen when he’s defending the rush and trying to knock the puck off an opposing attacker coming through the neutral zone. SELECTION: Fourth Round – #121 overall - Servac Petrovsky, C NYR PRE-DRAFT RANK: 24th ranked forward Born in Slovakia and having spent most of his youth playing in Czechia before committing to the Ontario Hockey League’s (OHL) Owen Sound Attack, Servac Petrovsky is no stranger to playing in different parts of the world. The 6-foot centre was a point-per-game player at just about every youth level he played at. In fact, he had a whopping 26 goals and 36 points in 33 games playing U17 hockey in Czechia until the COVID-19 pandemic put a halt to the 2019-20 season. With hockey on hold for a couple of months, Petrovsky returned to his native Slovakia and resumed his playing career there once the season started back up. He impressed playing second-tier pro hockey for Team Slovakia’s U18 team, scoring 16 goals and 16 assists in 26 games. From there, he caught the eyes of scouts for the Attack across the pond. There is a lot to like about Petrovsky’s game. He wasn’t playing high in the Attack’s lineup to start the season, which could factor into why he’s missing from so many draft rankings, but he got the opportunity to showcase his skills more as the season went on. If you look at the trajectory of his career so far, you’ll notice one common trend in each of his season-by-season stat lines: he loves to score goals. He’s very good at opening up space for himself and getting himself into position for a one-timer. But he’s also not afraid to get in tight to the net and score the dirty goals. If it shows up on the stat sheet, he’s on the board. TRADE: SELECTION: Fifth Round – #133 overall - Jake Richard, F NYR PRE-DRAFT RANK: 34th ranked forward Richard is a big, power forward who excels at banging in pucks around the net. He committed to the UConn in the winter and will join the Huskies program in the 2023-24 season. He grew a few inches since joining the USHL which allows for his skill to blend with a physical, net-front game. He excels at putting the puck in the back of the net and really came on for Muskegon as the year went on. His 48 points in 56 games was very impressive considering his mid-August birthdate. He’s still rail thin, so filling out his frame will be a big thing for him as he develops his game to go to the NCAA. SELECTION: Fifth Round – #140 overall - Elias Pettersson, D NYR PRE-DRAFT RANK: 17th ranked defenseman Elias Pettersson is a Swedish defenceman who plays a well-rounded two-way game. Not to be confused with his fellow Swede who has the exact same name (center for the Vancouver Canucks), this Elias Pettersson plays defence and is much bigger than his namesake. Pettersson played most of this season with the U20 team for Örebro where he was excellent, scoring 10 goals and earning 18 points over 37 games. He managed to play in 17 Swedish Hockey League (SHL) games later in the season but was rarely given consistent ice time. He earned one assist in those games but did flash a bit of his offensive potential despite being such a young player in one of the world’s best professional hockey leagues. DRAFT RECAP: Rangers add 3 forwards and 1 defenseman after making two trades to get more picks. And with resigning phase in mind Rangers make a trade with Calgary that moves 27 year old defenseman Ryan Graves to Alberta as Rangers would have 8 defenseman on the roster and they wanted flexibility going in the free agency. TRADE: - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - NEW YORK RANGERS DRAFT RANKINGS: Adam Doogan-SmithAmazing article as always Martin! Well done.NEW YORK RANGERS DRAFT 20222022 EHE Draft Review• 0 teams Like this 2 years -Inactive-Nicely assembled. Very well done. Gritsyuk as high as 24. WOW you guys are making me second guess everything. I need to review this guy again.NEW YORK RANGERS DRAFT 20222022 EHE Draft Review• 0 teams Like this 2 years
