Looking Ahead: Jesper Fasth

One of the great unknowns of the Rangers 2010 draft was Swedish winger Jesper Fasth. Many wondered what type of player the Rangers got and with limited exposure thus far, most people are still wondering the same thing.

It might be the dog days of the hockey season for the Rangers but Fasth’s season has already begun. Currently playing for Swedish men’s side HV71 in the European Trophy, Fasth has been playing on the 4th line but still managed to be quite productive grabbing 3 assists in 6 games including 2 in a recent 6-0 rout over Finnish side Karpart. Fasth’s season thus far also took in an under 20 tournament for Sweden where he went 1+1 in 4 games for the Swedes so the 18 year old winger has had a pretty solid start to his year.

So what type of player is the 6ft Fasth, who can play both wings? This is the scouting report from eliteprospects.com;

Fasth is a very good skater with nice acceleration and top speed. He works very hard, forechecks with impressive intensity and also create a lot of offense thanks to his agility and speed. Has decent hockey sense, technical skills and scoring ability, but it perhaps still more likely to develop into a role player.

It sounds like Fasth’s game is consistent with the desire for the Rangers to place an emphasis on speed and work ethic but in terms of scoring ability and skill level the young Swede appears to be a project. Its obvious that Fasth was picked with the long term in mind. He’ll be given all the time in the world to  develop in Sweden before the Rangers look at him as a serious, potential NHL candidate.

With many forward prospects close to being ready for the Rangers there is no need to rush the player. His good start this year playing with the HV71 men’s team at just 18 years old, Fasth appears to have a solid future. Drafted 157th overall there was also very little risk in this pick for the Rangers and lets not forget, the Rangers have had some pretty good success with drafting Swedes late……

Looking Ahead: Chris Kreider

Every Friday we look ahead to a different aspect of the future of the Rangers organization. This week we take a look at what may be the Rangers #1 prospect. There’s a very good chance that Massachusetts born Chris Kreider is the best offensive prospect the Rangers have even though the Rangers are fortunate to have a few  very promising ones coming up the system.

Drafted 19^th overall (and looking every bit the steal) Kreider has developed at a rapid pace to the point where he was a teen college player invited to play for the senior USA world championship team and to the point where GM Glen Sather declared Kreider ready for NHL play. On top of that Sather admitted he tried to sign the blue chip talent this summer. The fact Sather even commented publicly on a negotiation of this kind is compliment enough. So where is Kreider at right now and when will Rangers fans a) see him in Ranger blue and b) see him as an impact player?

Kreider has gone on record that he intends to turn pro a year from now. This was backed up by Rangers beat writer Jim Cerny on twitter. Kreider already has the pro physique standing a solid 6’2 220lbs while he is genuinely regarded as one of the most explosive skaters around. His size and excellent speed could, should prove to be a deadly combination.

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Rangers Announce Traverse City Roster

The Rangers have released the roster for the Traverse City Prospects tournament, to be held in Detroit in September. The roster includes 12 forwards, 8 defensemen, and 2 goalies. Of these 22 players, there are 3 that are undrafted free agents. The players attending the tournament include (undrafted free agents are italicized):

Forwards:
Ryan Bourque, Evgeny Grachev, Roman Horak, Colin Martin, Chris McKelvie, Randy McNaught, Brendan Shinnimin, Derek Stepan, Christian Thomas, Ethan Werek, Jason Wilson, Andrew Yogan

Defense:
Lee Baldwin, Sam Klassen, Tomas Kundratek, Dan Maggio, Brandon Manning, Ryan McDonagh, Dylan McIlrath, Jyri Niemi

Goaltenders:
Scott Stajcer, Cam Talbot

Unfortunately, the NHL Network will not be showing any of the tournament this year, preferring to show us re-runs of the 2010 Stanley Cup playoffs instead. It would have been nice to see how prospects that are clearly the future of the organization (Grachev, Werek, Stepan, Bourque, Thomas, Kundratek, McDonagh, McIlrath) played with each other. We will have to rely on those attending the tournament to feed us information though. What we do know, is that this Rangers team is very, very strong.

Traverse City Tournament Schedule

The schedule for the Traverse City Tournament, in which the Rangers prospects participate annually, has been released. The Rangers are in the Gretzky division, and have three games:

• 9/11 vs. Columbus at 3:30PM
• 9/12 vs. Carolina at 5:30PM
• 9/14 vs. Minnesota at 3:30PM

The Rangers will play a fourth game, depending on where they finish in the division.

Rangers Acquire Matt McCue

The Rangers made a quiet move today, acquiring 22 year old defenseman Matt McCue from Anaheim for young forward Tomas Zaborsky. McCue, an undrafted free agent, is 6’5 and 220 lbs, and was signed by the Ducks in 2008. Zaborsky was the Rangers 5th round pick in 2006, and will be playing in Finland after a year in Charlotte/Hartford. This is a very minor deal, aimed to address the relatively thin Hartford blue line.

Sauer Accepts Qualifying Offer

Rangers RFA defenseman Michael Sauer has accepted his qualifying offer. Sauer made $800,000 last season, and his QO would be somewhere in the $900,000 range. Sauer will probably be in Hartford next year, considering the depth of NHLers and top end prospects on the blue line already. The 6’3 220 lb defenseman missed most of last season in Hartford with injuries.

A Look at the Youth Movement

Since the lockout, the Rangers have been very publicly throwing all sorts of cash at free agents. This, on the surface, has caused the Rangers to have multiple long contracts with high salary cap hits, leaving the Rangers really strapped for cap space. This is leaving a very sour taste in Rangers fans mouths, who are calling for a big youth movement. However, under the surface, the Rangers have been going through the youth movement, and have very quietly stockpiled a plethora of young, promising prospects and core roster players. While most of the high-end talent is still a few years away, many of these young players are making an impact on the current Rangers roster. The Rangers organization has been pretty effective at integrating young players into the lineup at the proper time:

2005-2006
Henrik Lundqvist: The franchise goalie and cornerstone of the franchise was the diamond in the rough that many fans still believe the organization is looking for. Selected in the 7th round of the 2000 draft, Lundqvist forced himself on to the roster in 2005 as a backup, but quickly usurped the starting role from Kevin Weekes midway through the year.

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Rangers Draft; Just An Opinion.

Rangers Draft Weekend; Just my Opinion.

First of all I have to say I was off the radar all weekend in Ireland with no net access whatsoever (great timing I know…).So saying that, when I did get online and went straight to the draft results on Friday night (Sat AM for me) I wont lie and admit I was disappointed. I, like many of us, had dreamt of Nino, hoped for Tarasenko and would more than gladly settled for Skinner, Johansen or another player just so long as they added the scoring we craved.

Oh well…. When my initial disappointment (even anger) subsided i then realised it was Gordie Clark’s doing and in Gordie I and we trust.

To break it down as a weekend; The positives: The Rangers addressed organisational needs; they got their nasty defenceman, they got size, they got a center and they added alot of physicality. They drafted to a plan and Thomas and Yogan may be nice additions down the line. The Rangers continued to look to blood lines with Christian Thomas and they, in my opinion, got decent return for Sanguinetti who clearly had no future in the organisation.

After the positives come the question marks; I like Dylan Mcilrath. He’s exactly what we need in one area but his selection means the other area of dire need was left unattended and this is an issue for me. Of the two areas of need (defence and offence) the defence UFA market is much stronger and I feel an elite forward prospect would be more advisable as ‘D’ help was/would be easier to find. On top of that is the fact I think The Rangers ‘reached’ anywhere between 7-15 spots too much for the big Moose Jaw blueliner.

So what now? Mcilrath will now face huge expectancy, some impatience and perhaps even unfavourable career-long comparisons given who went after him in the draft (Fowler etc). This draft could be a foundation solidyfing cross roads or another Jessiman evoking memory. This is where my main issue is…..
Hopefully we get the solid draft we needed but the fact that at 10th overall we got no sure thing and simply more question marks (for the time being) is frustrating.

Note to The Undertaker; New York’s waiting…….

Dylan McIlrath = YouTube Sensation

Hello all.  After a long hiatus, I’m finally back doing posts here.  Forgive my almost year-long absence.  The recent NHL entry draft seemed like a good enough transition point for me to re-enter the blogosphere, and something about a recent top-10 pick has me pretty riled up…
A lot is being said about the Rangers newest first-round pick, Dylan McIlrath, the brutish teenage defenseman from Moose Jaw (Canadian city names, eh?).  While the move perplexed the majority of us Blueshirt fanatics, I quite honestly didn’t know how to feel about it.  That was until I did some research of my own over the weekend.  After undertaking the usual Google search of our newest defenseman, I decided I wanted to see some full-motion video and went on over to YouTube.  I was at first quite shocked to realize that a seemingly obscure 18 year old Canadian junior hockey player had more than one link to his credit on the world’s most popular video site.  Then, I was flat out impressed by what I saw.  The common theme in these videos: nobody gets the best of this kid.  Was particularly moved by the fight with John Stampohar (same build, and 2 years his elder).  What’s more impressive is that you see him come to the aid of his teammates in a few of these videos.  Maybe Dan Carcillo would have thought twice about mixing it up with Marian Gaborik if a player like this was an established presence on the ice at the time. That to me is equally important than any plus/minus or point total.  You can only hope that with NHL level coaching, this kid can one day blossom into what Chris Pronger has been throughout his career

Draft Day Two Coverage (Rangers Trade Bobby Sanguinetti)

Well, yesterday was interesting. The Rangers surprised everyone by picking Dylan McIlrath, but that was a solid pick, and many will realize this soon. As we enter Day Two of the draft, the Rangers hold picks in the 2nd, 4th, 5th, and 7th rounds. The draft will be covered on the NHL network. For you Twitter bugs, @NHL will be tweeting the picks as well. I will be posting any big NHL moves, and all Rangers moves and picks.

Rangers 2nd Round Pick: The Rangers have taken RW Christian Thomas of the Oshawa Generals with the 40th overall selection. Thomas is the son of former NHL player Steve Thomas. Christian put up 41 goals and 25 assists in 64 games in the OHL this year. He seems to have his dads scoring touch.

Update 1:55pm: The Kings used the 70th overall pick, acquired from the Rangers for Brian Boyle, to select Jordan Weal. Good pick for the Kings, bad deal for the Rangers.

Update 2:30pm: As per Larry Brooks, the Rangers have traded Bobby Sanguinetti to the Carolina Hurricanes. Picks are coming back. No word on what picks yet. Update: Rangers get 6th round pick this year and 2nd round pick next year. The 6th round pick this year is #157 overall.

Rangers 4th Round Pick: The Rangers have taken C Andrew Yogan of the Erie Otters of the OHL with their 4th round pick, #100 overall. Yogan put up a line of 25-30-55 with 97 PIMs in 63 GP. Yogan is 6’3, 202 lbs.

Rangers 5th Round Pick: The Rangers have taken Jason Wilson of the Owen Sound Attack of the OHL with their 5th round, #130 overall. Wilson put up a line of 17-18-35 with 101 PIMs in 46 GP. Wilson is 6’2, 205 lbs.

Rangers 6th Round Pick: As mentioned above, the Rangers have acquired a 6th round pick, #157 overall, as part of the deal for Bobby Sanguinetti. The Rangers used this pick to select RW Jesper Fasth of the Swedish Juniors. He put up a line of 23-26-49 in 37 GP. The 6’0 176 lb winger could be a real sleeper.

Rangers 7th Round Pick: The Rangers have taken RW Randy McNaught of the Saskatoon Blades of the WHL with their 7th round pick, #190 overall. McNaught is huge, at 6’4, 222 lbs, and put up a line of 6-6-12, with 131 PIMs in 59 GP.

That’s it for the Rangers. I will post a draft wrap up of my feelings on the draft later this week, as will the rest of the guys, as we prep for July 1 and free agency.