Rangers Rank 12th
Hockeysfuture.com produce organisational rankings for prospects and until recently the Rangers were ranked a very impressive third in the league. In the new rankings released yesterday they had slipped to 12th. This is largely due to two blue chip prospects ‘graduating’ to the bigs; those being Artem Anisimov and Michael Del Zotto. With the graduations considered being just outside the top third in the league is still good and bear in mind the depth will be supplemented by a top ten pick come June draft time.
People will put different stock and value into a website such as hockeysfuture.com but it is widely respected. Which leads me to pose this question; If they rank Ilkka Heikkinen as high as 5th best prospect in the organisation should he be ‘allowed’ to go back to Europe? If external sites such as this see him potentially that good should he be promsied an extended look at camp? We dont know whats going on yet and whether he is indeed going back home but if he does it could be a mistake. I for one think he looked solid in his 7 game call up and he had a very solid year in Hartford on a struggling team: he definitely flashed promise. Personally I was surprised to read recent criticism of his potential at another Rangers related website.
Overall, the site doesnt reveal any major surprises; strengths are considered to be defence and center (aka Stepan) while weaknesses are right wing and goaltending. Fingers crossed a good draft propels us further up the rankings and help brighten the future.
By Dave, April 19, 2010 @ 11:03 am
I don’t think it’s Heikkinen being “allowed” to go back, but that he was so poorly mishandled and mistreated here that he is going back.
HF is the first site I go to when it comes to NHL prospect information, so when they say the Rangers are #12, I trust it. We as fans overvalue our prospects anyway.
By jurgenno88, April 19, 2010 @ 11:39 am
Dave, what i meant by allowed was that i think the management should be very pro active in enticing him back. If needs be, say sorry etc. If someone is an asset then be man enough to treat him better from here on in.
If he wants to go back he shouldnt just be left to walk out but if he’s good enough to get a place then chase him and keep him.
HF is a good site – agreed. Very unbiased i find and very direct in their assessment. Fans (all of us) are always wearing tinted glasses in terms of prospects, well, most of the time.
Jordan Reply:
April 20th, 2010 at 12:26 pm
Money and a promise of playing time at the NHL level talks. Everything is doesn’t.
Jordan Reply:
April 20th, 2010 at 12:26 pm
And by is I meant else.