HF praises the Rangers depth at forward with players such as JT Miller, Chris Kreider, Christian Thomas, Jesper Fast and Marek Hrivik while also noting the top-four potential of Dylan McIlrath and Brady Skjei.
They do say that behind McIlrath and Skjei there are no potential top-four defensemen and that there is still a lack of depth in goal with no clear line of succession to follow Henrik Lundqvist.
Hockey’s Future has released their list of the top 20 Rangers prospects.
(1)Chris Kreider
JT Miller
Dylan McIlrath
Mats Zuccarello
Jesper Fast
Christian Thomas
Brady Skjei
Boo Nieves
Oscar Lindberd
(10)Michael St. Croix
THIS SECTION has detailed Ranger prospect rankings for the last few seasons.
In the fall, the Rangers top five prospects on this list were Kreider, Miller, McIlrath, Fast and Skjei.
Note: Zuccarello is considered a prospect based on their criteria for labeling players prospects. They allow players who come from Europe at 22 to meet their critera within three seasons. This is Zuccarello’s third season and he has not yet played 65 total games.
2:22PM: At Hockey’s Future, they rank Kreider 19th in their top 50 prospects and say “during this season he has shown signs of being one of the best prospects in the league, particularly during his last demotion to the AHL, but he does not look to be as much of a sure thing as he did last summer.”
12:53PM: In his past two games with the Rangers, Chris Kreider has a goal, six shots on goal and has played 13 minutes and nearly 15 minutes.
Kreider scored on a terrific passing play that started with Brad Richards and ended with a give and go between him and Michael Del Zotto.
Joe Micheletti noted on Tuesday night that Kreider was becoming more and more noticeable and that the key may have been that he stopped thinking and just started playing. Joe said, “he looks like a much different player than he did just a few weeks ago.”
On the Michael Kay Show yesterday, John Tortorella said that Kreider has started to learn how to play away from the puck. Tortorella said that he can only play a young if he doesn’t hurt the team defensively. He added, “we play in so many close games and it’s easy for people to say “let him play,” but when the puck is int he back of your net and you are losing 4-2, it just isn’t right.”
Tortorella followed up and said, “I really like what he did yesterday. Not only did he end up with 3 or 4 scoring chances, but he did the job along the wall. He understands positioning away from the puck and I think he is beginning to have a bit of a personality and we are really excited about it.”
Hockey’s Future is ranking the prospect systems of NHL teams and have the Rangers ranked 17th.
Speed, and building a team around it, is one of the Rangers strengths as well as a solid group of defensive prospects.
The main weakness they say the Rangers system is continues to be the lack of top goalie prospects and a plan to succeed Henrik Lundqvist. They also say that the Rangers don’t have a number one center in their system.
In May, when Carl Hagelin still counted and Tim Erixon was on the team, the Rangers were ranked 11th by Hockey’s Future.
At Hockey’s Future, they are counting down the top 50 prospects in the NHL and the Rangers Chris Kreider is ranked 11th.
The title of this section of the rankings is “Chris Kreider on the verge of NHL stardom after incredible postseason performance”
On his skill set, HF writes “Possessing an impressive combination of size and speed, Kreider has the attributes to play both a power game and a skill game. His straight-line speed for someone his size makes him scary for opposing defenders, and his hard, quick release keeps goaltenders on their toes.”
They also add that Kreider is likely to benefit form time in the AHL due to the lockout.
NHL teams from top to bottom by the strength of their farm system.
ranking the prospect systems of NHL teams and have the Rangers ranked 17th.
Chris Kreider is ranked first and followed by JT Miller, Dylan McIlrath, Jesper Fasth and Brady Skjei.
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