This weekend at the NHL Draft the Rangers:
The Rangers traded picks 131 and 148 to move up to 102. They had just acquired 148 from Nashville for Adam Edstrom.
At 102 they chose LW Spencer Bowes:
Jason Bukala said that he thought Bowes would return to the OHL next season before going to Providence College.
Sam Cosentino said on ESPN, “He’s a Carleton Place guy, right outside Ottawa, get to play for the hometown team, spend another year getting miles because if we see the improvement out of Bowes that we saw from the start to the end of this year that his developmental path will keep rising. Really slow getting going in the first half but a good second half for Bowes.”
Cosentino also said that Derick Brassard had joined the Rangers front office or development staff.
McKeen’s Hockey ranked him 80th, calling him a “late bloomer” who started the season on the fourth line and with 10 points in 34 games before adding 40 points in 42 games, including playoffs, the rest of the way. They say that he’s a “competitor on and off the puck, extremely physical, excellent forechecker. He lacks “high-end skating ability or pace” but if he can get quicker then he could become a middle-six contributor.”
McKeen’s also ranked him 8th on their list of Most Physical/Best Body Checkers.
At 162, the Rangers picked defensemen Andre Mondoux, 6-3 and 201.
He had 6 goals and 12 assists in 66 games for Kingston.
He’s ranked 224 by McKeen’s who wrote “After playing the last two years with Pickering of the OJHL, Mondoux broke into the OHL full time this year with Kingston. A Notre Dame commit, Mondoux’s growth over the course of the season has him on the draft radar as a re-entry candidate. The big defender is the kind of athlete that NHL teams are looking for from their stay-at-home defensive candidates; he has the mobility to handle today’s quick pace. He’s also aggressive when defending down low and assertive with his gaps when defending in transition. The offensive side of things is a work in progress, but he has intriguing potential.”
Sam Cosentino said on ESPN, “This guy was a 14th round pick in the OHL draft and he finds his way onto the Kingston roster, just a puck moving D who knows what he is and just continues to get better and better. He is a give him an inch, take a mile kind of player.”
At 163, the Rangers took RW Darian Anderson, 6-3, 196. He isn’t ranked by McKeen’s.
He had 20 g0als and 25 assists in 60 games lat season and 6 goals and 7 assists in 8 playoff games.
At 193 the Rangers picked Russian defenseman Ivan Patrikhayev.
He is 20, 6-0, 185 and shoots left.
The Rangers made the following picks in the third round:
The Rangers have picked defenseman Ben MacBeath at 64th overall.
He is a left shot defenseman.
On ESPN, Jason Bukala said “this is a great pick for the New York Rangers, I had him way higher on my list. He popped off this year in the WHL and he’s committed to go to Denver. Hockey IQ, being used in all situations. He’s on the rise, he has top-pairing upside, all situations.”
The Hockey News ranked him 38th overall and said “he’s one of the higher-level-skating defensemen in the draft. He’s got good size and good mobility and he moves the puck out simply and quickly. He can exit the zone with skill or he can exit the zone with sense.”
Another scout told The Hockey News, “If he played a little harder and with more purpose, you’d be looking at a much higher-rated guy but I haven’t seen that enough from him.”
The Hockey News says that his best case is Ivan Provorov.
McKeen‘s ranked him 6th on their list of Best Skaters and 37th overall.
McKeen‘s adds, “It can be hard sometimes to watch MacBeath play and not be jealous of how smooth and effortless his skating ability looks. He simply glides on his edges, and he reaches a jersey-flapping top speed without seeming to even break a sweat. His hands aren’t quite of the same caliber as his feet are, but they’re good enough to allow him to maintain control of the puck when he’s in motion and break an occasional ankle. However, for a defender with those kinds of qualities he doesn’t actually find the scoresheet as much as you might expect. His production during the regular season was more good, than it was truly great, and then it was almost nonexistent in the playoffs and once again at the U18s tournament, even though he played for Canada at the latter and had plenty of offensively capable teammates around him. That inevitably leads to questions about how much he’ll be able to learn with regards to creating offence at the NHL level. There is also still a lot of room for improvement when he doesn’t have the puck, as he is too reliant on defending with his stick and is too soft in the trenches.”