Before words like blasphemy and phrases like erroneous on all all counts get thrown around, you should know that perennial contenders Vegas and Florida–when healthy–have not built through the draft. Instead, they have treated prospects and draft picks like the New York Yankees, shipping the elsewhere for established players to build a championship roster. The Rangers do not need to build through the draft, but to make that work, they’d need to do it right and take some significant risks.
Neither Florida nor Vegas built through the draft
Starting with the Florida Panthers, their current roster has just four drafted players: Aleksander Barkov, Anton Lundell, Mackie Samoskevich, and Aaron Ekblad. They’ve used their picks and prospects to acquire high end talent like Matthew Tkachuk, Sam Reinhart, Sam Bennett, Brad Marchand, Eetu Luostarainen, and Seth Jones. What’s interesting is that Florida took significant risks in these trades, sacrificing some significant assets to acquire this high end talent.
- Matthew Tkachuk – Mackenzie Weegar and Jonathan Huberdeau
- Sam Reinhart – Devon Levi and a 2022 1st round pick
- Sam Bennett – Emil Heinemen and a 2022 2nd round pick
- Seth Jones – Spencer Knight and a (now) 2027 1st round pick
- Eetu Luostarainen – part of the Vincent Trocheck trade return
Only Marchand came cheap.
They leveraged waivers to find gems like Gustav Forsling, and then found bargain bin signings Carter Verhaeghe (not qualified by Tampa in 2020), Evan Rodrigues, Niko Mikkola, and Dmitry Kulikov. Sergei Bobrovsky was the only “premier” free agent signing, and a phenomenal one at that.
Also critical to Florida’s success is in letting players go when the time was right. They let Brandon Montour walk to Seattle for over $7 million a season, money they used to re-sign Verhaeghe. Oliver Ekman-Larsson went to Toronto for $3.5 million. Kevin Stenlund and Nick Cousins were let go and spots filled by younger, cheaper players.
Vegas makes Florida look tame
Vegas, much like Florida, has never relied on the draft to develop players. The only two drafted player on their roster are Pavel Dorofyev and Kaeden Korczak. Perhaps we can use shrewd expansion draft trades as “drafting” for Vegas, as they’ve held onto Shea Theodore (Anaheim), Brayden McNabb (Edmonton), and William Karlsson (Columbus). It’s a stretch, but technically expansion is a “draft,” so let’s run with it.
Every other player on this roster–save for Mitch Marner, which was a sign and trade–has been acquired via trade. From Jack Eichel to Mark Stone to Tomas Hertl, all trades.
The Rangers do not need to build through the draft. In fact, there’s a strong argument that, given the state of the prospect pool and where the Rangers hope to be drafting, that they should actually be aggressive with trades.
The Rangers do not need to build through the draft
The same approach can be used by the Rangers, if they so desire. There are valid questions about Chris Drury’s ability to pull this off, but since it’s been proven that the Rangers do not need to build through the draft, and that Drury (and by extension, James Dolan) wants this to be a quick turnaround, then building through trades is the way to go.
There are a bunch of prospects in the system that can and should be leveraged to make this happen. While guys like Brett Berard and Adam Edstrom have minimal trade value, good but not great prospects like EJ Emery and Malcolm Spence fit the bill for a significant trade.
Aside: This is not to say these are not good prospects that could contribute to the Rangers. This is an exercise to state the Rangers do not need to build through the draft. If they go this route, then they need to take risks and let prospects go in hopes of a quick turnaround. Whether or not I personally agree with this approach doesn’t matter.
No one should be off the table for the Rangers. Not recently acquired Liam Greentree, not OHL playoff star Nathan Aspinall, not under the radar acquisition Jacob Battaglia. Braden Schneider is already rumored to be available. These are the types of players and prospects that are in the “good” category, but likely won’t ever hit the “great” category.
This would require the Rangers taking risks and perhaps going after players like Mason McTavish or Shane Wright, players with high skill and pedigree that haven’t put it together yet. There is no Matthew Tkachuk available, but McTavish and Wright represent the risks taken by Florida for Sams Bennett and Reinhart. Barrett in Utah is another name that fits this bill.
There are also reclamation projects that would be more like the Seth Jones acquisition by Florida. Does Edmonton make Darnell Nurse available? What about Calgary and Kevin Bahl?
No, the Rangers do not need to build through the draft. But what Vegas and Florida have done requires an appetite for risk taking, something the Rangers have not shown yet. It seems Drury wants to thread the needle without taking calculated risks, an impossible task.
The Rangers do not need to build through the draft, but without risk taking and a willingness to trade good but not great prospects, it may not be possible.