rumor/report: Rangers Making Front Office Changes; Bobrov Gone, Gordie Clark Demoted?

[Drew a Penalty]

But isn't this bad? Considering all the late round European players who have been making their way here? Feels like they are losing a key cog to this teams scouting. This might be a bad thing.

 

Kakko

Pajuniemi

Edstrom

Lundkvist

Kravtsov

Chytil

Andersson

Reunenen

Huska

Saarela

 

These are guys drafted while he was here. Couple of wait and sees. Not like they hit HRs with the NA picks. There's a fuck ton of who and why's throughout.

 

Who are all of these late-round European players that are making their way here? You listed two and another who isn't signed.

 

Saarela and Huska were drafted in 2015, the year prior to his becoming Head of European Scouting. Either way, neither of them are NHLers. Saarela is already out of North America and Huska hasn't been good.

 

So in terms of late picks, you've got Pajuniemi and Reunanen. We don't even know if either are NHLers yet. Reunanen might be, but he likely isn't one in this organization.

 

Andersson was a mess of a first-round pick. He still couldn't find a role on one of the worst teams in the NHL.

 

Kakko was a given pick. It would have been a crime had they gone off the board there at the time. Zero credit to Bobrov there.

 

I don't see a "key cog" here.

[ThirtyONE]

I don't agree at all, every team drafts busts but they don't always leave a players who's (A) organizational need and (B) a clearly superior player on the board.

 

McIlrath aside, Clark left too many drafts with absolutely not enough NHL talent. Starting in 2008, the first draft Clarke ran after coming on in July 2007, the Rangers drafted:

 

3 NHLers in '08 (DZ, Stepan, Weise)

1 in '09 (Kreider)

1 on '10 (Fast)

1 in '11 (Miller)

1.5 in '12 (Skjei and Nieves)

 

Then they went a long time with no 1sts or seconds and did well enough with guys like Buch, Duclair, Shesty...Then it goes right back off a cliff with Lias, still debatable drafting Krav over Wahlstrom (although I feel better about it than I did on draft day...Or a year ago, TBH)...then we start getting gifts with Kakko and Laf.

 

Clarke's legacy is pretty spotty IMO.

 

Shit, I dunno man. On something that's almost a crapshoot, he thoroughly stocked the cupboards when he had picks. He's drafted multiple NHL players every year except 2015.

 

Between 1990 and 2000, of the 2,600 hundred players drafted just 494 or 19% played in at least 200 contests. Impossible to say what Clarks % will be because so many of his picks haven't even played, let alone gotten 200 games, but between 2008 and 2013 he has a 25% hit rate (of players playing 200+ games).

 

That's well above league average.

 

This percentage doesn't include Igor, Tarmo Reunanen, Lias Andersson, Filip Chytil, Vitali Kravtsov, K'Andre Miller, Nils Lundkvist, Lauri Pajuniemi, Kaapo Kakko, Matthew Robertson, Zach Jones, Alexis Lafreni?re, Braden Schneider, or Will Cuylle who all could easily pass the 200 gp threshold and raise his percentage even higher.

 

Yeah he whiffed on a few and it was frustrating but like I said, his average is pretty damn good.

[jsm7302]

Whoever was in charge of Lias and McIlrath should have been let go a few years ago. Those were absolutely horrid picks in those positions.

 

You could read every scouting report available on Anderson and realize he did not fill a void here and was certainly not the best player available.

[The Dude]

Who are all of these late-round European players that are making their way here? You listed two and another who isn't signed.

 

Saarela and Huska were drafted in 2015, the year prior to his becoming Head of European Scouting. Either way, neither of them are NHLers. Saarela is already out of North America and Huska hasn't been good.

 

So in terms of late picks, you've got Pajuniemi and Reunanen. We don't even know if either are NHLers yet. Reunanen might be, but he likely isn't one in this organization.

 

Andersson was a mess of a first-round pick. He still couldn't find a role on one of the worst teams in the NHL.

 

Kakko was a given pick. It would have been a crime had they gone off the board there at the time. Zero credit to Bobrov there.

 

I don't see a "key cog" here.

 

True, I thought there were more late rounders as i originally thought he was brought in much earlier. Then after actually looking I came up with these names in thinking he was hired just prior to the 15 draft.

[The Dude]

Whoever was in charge of Lias and McIlrath should have been let go a few years ago. Those were absolutely horrid picks in those positions.

 

You could read every scouting report available on Anderson and realize he did not fill a void here and was certainly not the best player available.

 

Well he definitely checked all the boxes of what the Rangers were in a run of drafting. They had this idea that they would somehow take these well balanced players with lower skill levels at the Jr level, then expect their "complete game" to somehow transfer to the NHL. They constantly passed over skill players with this thinking, until recently. Or really after the Andersson pick... Chytil was a solid pick where they got him in the same draft. It's weird as Chytil is still so young and if feels like Andersson is like 24/25, even though he's still only 22.

 

Gladly the Rangers now have more skill than they know what to do with.

[TwoMinutesForNothing]

Clarke was already taking a lesser role before this and rumored to be close to retirement. Bobrov was viewed as his heir apparent while JD was still here, now he's gone altogether. He was a good scout.

[Sharpshooter]

Losing JD continues to suck. :(

[BlairBettsBlocksEverything]

Whoever was in charge of Lias and McIlrath should have been let go a few years ago. Those were absolutely horrid picks in those positions.

 

You could read every scouting report available on Anderson and realize he did not fill a void here and was certainly not the best player available.

 

wasn't a great draft overall but in hindsight I think we would do VERY well having Tippet, Necas or Suzuki instead.

[LindG1000]

Whoever was in charge of Lias and McIlrath should have been let go a few years ago. Those were absolutely horrid picks in those positions.

 

You could read every scouting report available on Anderson and realize he did not fill a void here and was certainly not the best player available.

 

It doesn't change that the pick was a colossal miss, but this was a case of the Rangers having no fucking idea what to do with a high pick because they hadn't had one in like a decade+.

 

The prevailing thinking was that they wanted Pettersson, and when he fell off the board, they straight up panicked and went with the safer pick - which you do not do at 7 in a crapshoot draft.

 

The truth of that draft as of right now is that the guys picked after him have one or two things that differentiate them: they've either taken significant advantage of the "size is meaningless" NHL or they've worked really fucking hard in a way he hasn't. Necas was considered a project, Vilardi was considered a big question mark. Yamamoto and Suzuki fell because of size concerns, as did Tolvanen. Meanwhile, Mittelstadt, Andersson, Rasmussen, and Tolvanen were "sure thing can't miss players", and the Rangers went off the board entirely for Chytil, which turned out just fine.

 

Total crapshoot.

[jsm7302]

It doesn't change that the pick was a colossal miss, but this was a case of the Rangers having no fucking idea what to do with a high pick because they hadn't had one in like a decade+.

 

The prevailing thinking was that they wanted Pettersson, and when he fell off the board, they straight up panicked and went with the safer pick - which you do not do at 7 in a crapshoot draft.

 

The truth of that draft as of right now is that the guys picked after him have one or two things that differentiate them: they've either taken significant advantage of the "size is meaningless" NHL or they've worked really fucking hard in a way he hasn't. Necas was considered a project, Vilardi was considered a big question mark. Yamamoto and Suzuki fell because of size concerns, as did Tolvanen. Meanwhile, Mittelstadt, Andersson, Rasmussen, and Tolvanen were "sure thing can't miss players", and the Rangers went off the board entirely for Chytil, which turned out just fine.

 

Total crapshoot.

 

No one was in the same mindset as them with that pick. NO ONE. He had possible leadership intangibles and that was really it. Can't harp on it anymore as he isnt even with the organization but anyone that kept their job after that debacle shouldve been thanking their lucky stars.

[LindG1000]

No one was in the same mindset as them with that pick. NO ONE. He had possible leadership intangibles and that was really it. Can't harp on it anymore as he isnt even with the organization but anyone that kept their job after that debacle shouldve been thanking their lucky stars.

 

It's indefensible to make that pick at #7 because "will play NHL games" isn't what you're going for there. You're going for "will be a top 6 forward/top4 D".

[siddious]

No one was in the same mindset as them with that pick. NO ONE. He had possible leadership intangibles and that was really it. Can't harp on it anymore as he isnt even with the organization but anyone that kept their job after that debacle shouldve been thanking their lucky stars.

 

And they were deadly wrong about leadership too lol

 

The worst draft pick since McIlrath by far.

 

 

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[Sharpshooter]

What did Lias throw away faster, his silver medal or his NHL career?

[RichieNextel305]

Obviously Kravtsov is extremely young and in the earliest of early stages of his career. But I was very upset we didn’t take Wahlstrom, and even more mad he went where he went. We have very few righties in the system up front, and even fewer shoot-first type of guys. He would have slid in nicely. At that time, Kravtsov was a roll of the dice. That being said, from then until now with the way he has developed and the way he looked in his limited NHL time, I think there’s a good chance that can be a hit for us. But time will tell.

 

The McIlrath pick will go down with Jessiman as an all-time disaster. I still cannot comprehend to this day how that pick was allowed to be made.

[Sharpshooter]

Another pick I hated before that was taking Al Montoya, a goalie, at number six when you already had Lundqvist in the system. They can say at the time they didn't really know what they had with him, but I think that's crap. That was a huge waste of a top ten pick. McIlrath was basically the Jessiman situation, but a defenseman. At least he did manage to play for the Rangers a little bit. lol

[siddious]

I say this with the disclaimer that I don’t watch every isles game, and we only saw a glimpse of kravtsov this season but taking kravtsov was the absolute right move IMO. He looked fantastic in his stint here.

 

Time will tell. Walls obviously has talent but I didn’t see anything out of him this season that had me pissed off that we didn’t take him.

 

 

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[siddious]

Another pick I hated before that was taking Al Montoya, a goalie, at number six when you already had Lundqvist in the system. They can say at the time they didn't really know what they had with him, but I think that's crap. That was a huge waste of a top ten pick. McIlrath was basically the Jessiman situation, but a defenseman. At least he did manage to play for the Rangers a little bit. lol

 

I get mad that they trade away first rounders but then I read off then names they did take in the first round and it softens the low quite a bit.

 

 

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[Sharpshooter]

Wahlstrom looks good, but is also a bit further along in his NHL development. Kravtsov came right in and looked like belonged right away. He didn't light the scoresheet on fire, but at times he didn't have the best line mates either. I still think it's a win of a pick and the right decision. I think both are going to be very good players, with Kravtsov probably being a bit better, if I had to guess. Regardless, taking him over Wahlstrom was not a bad decision to me.

[Sharpshooter]

I get mad that they trade away first rounders but then I read off then names they did take in the first round and it softens the low quite a bit.

 

 

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Yeah, in some cases the drafts were just not that great, no question. But, they were still bad decisions, though. I will say the Rangers haven't done too terribly in that regard even with those regrettable picks.

[siddious]

They seem to do well in later rounds. Hopefully they can keep doing that and keep improving with late first round picks going forward.

 

I know they’re nearing the end of the rebuild but I hope they don’t start selling first rounders like they were before either.

 

 

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[Vodka Drunkenski]

Another pick I hated before that was taking Al Montoya, a goalie, at number six when you already had Lundqvist in the system. They can say at the time they didn't really know what they had with him, but I think that's crap. That was a huge waste of a top ten pick. McIlrath was basically the Jessiman situation, but a defenseman. At least he did manage to play for the Rangers a little bit. lol

 

Jessiman really hurt because so many good players went after him in the first round

[Sharpshooter]

Jessiman really hurt because so many good players went after him in the first round

 

Yes. I was pissed at that draft in particular because that first round was loaded.

[Pete]

I say this with the disclaimer that I don’t watch every isles game, and we only saw a glimpse of kravtsov this season but taking kravtsov was the absolute right move IMO. He looked fantastic in his stint here.

 

Time will tell. Walls obviously has talent but I didn’t see anything out of him this season that had me pissed off that we didn’t take him.

 

 

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Wahlstrom is more what this team needs. He's a a volume shooter and the Rangers are a team of overhl-passers.

[josh]

Wahlstrom is more what this team needs. He's a a volume shooter and the Rangers are a team of overhl-passers.

 

Wahlstrom avg 2.1 shots per game

Kravtsov was at 2.6 in the KHL this season. Just over 1 s/g with the Rangers this season. I'd expect him to be near that 2.5 mark. He's a guy always looking to get open and shoot.

[Pete]

Wahlstrom avg 2.1 shots per game

Kravtsov was at 2.6 in the KHL this season. Just over 1 s/g with the Rangers this season. I'd expect him to be near that 2.5 mark. He's a guy always looking to get open and shoot.

There is literally 0 point comparing what Wahlstrom did this year versus what Kravtsov did in the KHL.