Tuesday, January 1, 2008

Ranger's #8 in Organizational Rankings

Hockey's Future has ranked the New York Rangers #8 in their Organizational Rankings...

8. New York Rangers

Strengths: Depth and high-end talent are what makes the Rangers prospect group so intriguing. Al Montoya is still considered a top goaltending prospect despite a rash of injuries which he has admirably battled through. Marc Staal, the second eldest of the Staal brothers, and Bobby Sanguinetti, are both projected to be big impact NHL defensemen. On top of that, they added the immensely talented Alexei Cherepanov at the 2007 draft. Not to be outdone by the defensive pool, Alex Bourret and Brandon Dubinsky both have top six potential. Further down the depth chart are talented project players like Tom Pyatt, Artem Anisimov, Michael Sauer, Lauri Korpikoski and Hugh Jessiman. The Rangers have had a great deal of success with young players making an impact in the NHL. To name a few, Ryan Callahan, Daniel Girardi, and Nigel Dawes have all seen NHL action and appear to be future regulars.

Weaknesses: The Rangers have only one goaltending prospect in their top 20, making it a significant weakness, but they did acquire Antoine Lafleur at the 2007 draft to help improve the depth.

Top five prospects: 1. Al Montoya (G), 2. Marc Staal (D), 3. Alexei Cherepanov (RW), 4. Alex Bourret (RW), 5. Bobby Sanguinetti (D). Key graduates: Daniel Girardi.

...for all the criticism Sather received for paying for high priced aging veterans he's obviously done a great job stocking the minors with talent. Don Maloney must be given a lot of credit as well, probably more than Sather.

...Jim Schoenfeld should also be given credit for developing these guys into NHL ready prospects.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

This is great to see. Not only is it great for the future of the Rangers it gives us great bargaining chips if we want to make a big trade.