Rangers Prospects Quarter Season Report Card

If you were like me growing up, one of the most harrowing and nerve wracking days was report card day. You would receive a progress report as to whether or not you were performing up to snuff and face the consequences for that performance. Certainly none of the ‘kids’ on the Rangers this season are as lazy as I was in school, but still, a quarter of the way through the season seems like a good point to grade out the youngsters on the roster on their performance thus far. For simplicity, I am limiting this analysis to players under 25.

Brady Skjei: A-

Skjei is the only player on this list who is assured to be a member of the Rangers long term, after he signed a six year contract extension this offseason. Skjei has assumed the “Mr. Everything” role previously held by Ryan McDonagh and has performed adequately. Skjei is on pace for the worst full season Corsi For % of his career, has a negative Corsi For % relative to his teammates and is doing so with a PDO over 100. In short, these stats say he’s chasing play, and doing so worse than his teammates are, while getting relatively lucky in terms of on ice goal scoring. However if you dig a little deeper, it’s clear Skjei is doing a lot with the deck stacked against him. He is taking a majority of his faceoffs in the defensive zone for the first time in his career, leads the team in even strength time on ice per game by over two minutes, and is doing so while playing in a shutdown role against the opponents’ top lines. Simply put, he’s being asked to do a TON, at only 24 years old. He’s performing admirably for such a young player being in such a tough spot. Ideally, once the Rangers begin moving out of the rebuild phase, Skjei will have teammates that can share the burden with him, and push his possession numbers in a positive direction.

Pavel Buchnevich: B+

For two years, social media around the Rangers got consistently toxic whenever Alain Vigneault made Buch a healthy scratch or dropped him in the lineup. When the team hired David Quinn, fans rejoiced, believing that the new regime would give their beloved Buchnevich more ice time. When he was scratched for three early games, Rangers fans on the internet had a collective meltdown. Fact is though, that he would periodically take shifts off, coasting around until returning to the bench, which led to his limited ice time. After his brief demotion to the Quinn Bin, he returned with a vengeance, making highlight reel plays like the one above, and finishing in the teams’ top 2 in CF% in each of those games. He started to mix the tantalizing potential his fans loved to tout with a steady consistency coaches crave. Of course, this was before a broken thumb will sideline him at least a month, but the Buchnevich loyalists are being vindicated by his recent string of solid play.

Tony DeAngelo: B+

It was pretty easy to root against Tony DeAngelo for a while. His tenure in New York started with someone finding a tweet from the 2012 Winter Classic, in which he stated how much he hates the Rangers. A troubled prospect who had already been with 2 different NHL organizations, he had been suspended multiple times for using homophobic slurs, racially charged language and abuse of officials. He arrived in New York as a part of the Derek Stepan trade and his controversial political views immediately turned him into a polarizing member of the Rangers. In his first season in the organization, he struggled to stick in New York, and after an early season stint in the Quinn Bin, he found his way back into the lineup following injuries to Adam McQuaid and Freddy Claesson and has been arguably the second best defenseman since. He is tied with Skjei for second in scoring among defensemen, despite playing in only 9 games, and is among the team leaders in relative CF%. The coaching staff clearly does not view his production as a fluke, rewarding him with a spot on the top pairing alongside Brady Skjei. This may have been DeAngelo’s last season to stick in the NHL, and thus far, he is demonstrating that he belongs.

Brett Howden: B

A lot of hype was placed on Libor Hajek as the piece the Rangers truly coveted in the Ryan McDonagh trade. Plenty of discussion has occurred about Vlad Namestnikov’s role with the Rangers of today and tomorrow. Fans will always hype draft picks for the possibility of what they could be. But Brett Howden, whose name was misspelled in Bob McKenzie’s tweet announcing the trade, was regularly viewed as the ‘extra’ piece in the deal. He was often touted as a fourth line grinder with scoring upside, which has proven to be flat out wrong. He is among the team leaders in Points/60, plays on the PP and PK, and has dazzled at times like with his between the legs goal against San Jose in October. Perhaps it’s the low expectations placed on him, but he truly looks like one of the Rangers’ best players. Certainly Rangers fans will want to see him appear more consistently on the score sheet, but his ability and ceiling are impossible to miss.

Filip Chytil: B-

Chytil is a bit of a confounding case. He is seen as one of the Rangers’ top prospects by many, and consistently dazzles with his phenomenal puck skills and skating. Two or three times a game, I say, out loud, “That kid is SO good.” Yet through 17 games, he was playing under 10 minutes a night, and only had three assists with no goals. Whereas it wasn’t acceptable for draftmate Lias Andersson to play less than 10 minutes a night in New York, for some reason it has been the norm for the younger and more talented Chytil. Buchnevich’s injury could open the door for Chytil, who was moved to the top line for most of the Vancouver game, and delivered his first goal of the season, and was clearly the best player on the ice in the third period of the game. If he stays on the top unit, I fully expect his production to explode.

Neal Pionk: C+

Truly no Rangers player has been as polarizing as Pionk, who passes the eye test with flying colors while putting up abysmal advanced statistics. He leads the team in goals, assists, and points among defensemen, and scored the sexiest goal a Rangers player has scored in ages.

While doing all this, he has consistently posted the worst shot metrics on the team, regardless of linemates. It is important to bear in mind that these subpar performances have happened while playing important minutes against quality opponents, and in tough situations: He starts 57.1% of his shifts in the defensive zone. The bottom line with Pionk is that he will likely never be anything other than what he has been: A fantastically skilled offensive defenseman who struggles to perform in his own zone. There will always be place for players like this in the NHL, but it’s possible he will never be anything but a third pair power play specialist.

Alexandar Georgiev: C

The first Bulgarian born NHL player in history, Georgiev caught the league’s attention with solid performances in 2017-18 and secured the backup job in training camp. Though he has only started 4 games, he has had a roller coaster thus far. His first start, in Carolina, was a disaster for the entire team, in which he allowed 7 goals behind a defense that looked more like the Keystone Kops than an NHL team. He rebounded with a .941 SV% over the next two games at home Florida and in Anaheim. His fourth start was a mixed bag, allowing 4 goals in Columbus, but standing tall in making 34 saves and winning his second road shootout of the year. His standard numbers are fairly ugly, but it’s very rare to see a quality 22 year old goaltender at this level. Georgiev might be a longterm NHL Goaltender if he is able to continue building on these performances and maturing.

Vinni Lettieri: D+

Lettieri had the Rangers brass buzzing at the start of the season, when his preseason performances were still fresh in everyone’s mind. The gritty, skilled winger with offensive upside we saw then has vanished however. He hasn’t recorded a point through 12 games, holds a miserable 44.87 CF %, and seems like an afterthought on the fourth line. His expected goals stats are solid, meaning he is generating chances even if they aren’t being converted upon. But this was the concern with Lettieri a year ago: He often hit posts, and failed to deliver when chances appeared. At a certain point, such a player will need to be replaced by one with better finishing.

Lias Andersson: Incomplete

The seventh overall pick from 2017 failed to make the team out of camp, and began the season in Hartford. An injury to Mats Zuccarello opened the door for Lias. The scoring prowess that allowed him to post 12 points in 14 games with the Pack has been absent thus far in New York, but for a 19 year old adjusting to the NHL, that’s to be expected. He is skating on the second line, and looks like a potential weapon on the penalty kill. The potential is there, but the small sample size of only 5 games makes it impossible to meaningfully say where he is at this point.