Scott Wheeler, one of the best prospect writers in the business, is in the process of revealing his 2026 prospect pool rankings, and for the Rangers it’s actually not as bad as some people think. Wheeler had the Rangers prospect pool ranked 18th out of the 32 NHL teams, which is probably higher than many had expected. The Rangers were ranked 19th last year, which is a slight improvement. The Blueshirts have some good prospects, but obviously lack high end talent outside of Gabe Perreault.
Perreault is obviously the top guy in the Rangers prospect pool, and we are seeing that his “skating issues” were wildly overblown in his draft year. It’s rare that we see fans of other teams be jealous of the Rangers, and all those teams that passed on him from around 12th overall to 23rd overall are probably kicking themselves.
While we all lament the Artemi Panarin trade, Liam Greentree is a legitimate prospect and #2 in the Rangers prospect pool. He’s not NHL ready just yet and there are concerns about his ability to keep up in the NHL, but like Perreault those concerns seem to have stolen the narrative. Perreault projects to be a top line player, while Greentree seems to be more of a middle six power forward.
Malcolm Spence, EJ Emery, and Noah Laba round out the top five in the Rangers prospect pool, though all three project to be bottom half of the lineup players. Spence and Emery are high end skaters, for what it’s worth.