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.”