I honestly can't fault the Rangers for taking Lafreniere over Stutzle.

During the entire 2020 draft season, Lafreniere was widely projected as the clear-cut favourite to go first overall.

Is the problem bad drafting or bad development? If Stutzle and Lafreniere switched places, or Kakko and Zegras, or Kravtsov and Farabee…would they be doing as well in NY?

Gotta love revisionist history.

probably both rangers havent been that great at developing prospects over the decades at all forwards i should say idk about dmen and obviously they are pretty decent at goalies

Dmen too. Dylan McIlrath, Bobby Sanguinetti, Tim Erixon

I feel like, for whatever reason, it’s been a tough place for top prospects to develop.

So relieving knowing that New York cant draft for ****

Bad development for the most part. Though IMO Stutzle was a better prospect than Laf.

The montreal one is a trade or what exactly

Yeah, he was promoted as a "generational" player. It would've been crazy not to take him.

... at the same time, the Rangers really needed some center help at the time. However, if they did take anyone other than Laffy, it would've been Byfield. Not sure how that would've went. Obviously Stutzle has emerged as the best of the top 5 or whatever

Coaching is part of the problem. Gallant and Quinn are both coaches who specialize in building forecheck systems around grinders rather than skilled power forwards. Lafreniere is a physical + smart player but he isn’t fast or skillful, in the right system he should be effective similarly to JT/RNH.

I think these posts are fun, but you gotta be fair to everyone involved... EVERY team in the League passed on Robo... including DAL on the first round haha. I think these are only fair if you take like 5 or 10 spots away from the original pick. Otherwise, it's completely luck. I think for the most part, you did go close to the original pick. The outlier is Robo here

I'm a NYR fan, and at this point... it's gotta be development. Both Kakko and Laffy were billed as super star talent, and were the no-brainer picks in each draft for NYR. It's a damn shame. I mean, Chytil, Miller, and Schneider are other first round picks that are looking good for NYR right now. But the list of those that aren't looking good is way too long... I think longer than most other teams, especially given the #1 and #2 overall picks that rarely miss like this.

Considering tanner glass is parts of NY player development im gunna say it's the development

Its got to be development, or a bit of both. Kravtsov was probably overdrafted on the run he had in KHL playoffs that year. At the time, it seemed like a good pitch to swing at. Kakko was also coming off a serious international tournament boost, which probably blocked the spotlight for others (I am guessing they would have taken Turcotte if not Kakko, so maybe not better situation). Laffy was consensus #1 and probably still turns out to be very good player.

I just think the clock on these things stretches back further (McIlrath, all those guys in early 2000's that busted). NY is hard place to develop.

Literally everybody slept on JRob. Happened again with Stankoven 😉

Bad skating. Too small. Doesn’t matter when you have the offensive instincts those two have

It wasn’t specifically meant for Montreal. The idea was had they drafted better they wouldn’t need to sign him at all.

It’s all fun banter type stuff from one hockey fan to another. If you look at the early 90’s Russian invasion those were some crazy late picks Mogilny, Burke, Federov etc … Even Brett Hull Rick Tocchet Luc Robataile were late round picks. At that point it’s a roll of the dice.

I’d have to say bad development, but Ranger(s) bad development goes back to Dave Gagner Mark Tinordi era, Kovalev exploded as a Canadien, Manny Malhotra was rushed. There’s something wrong with the development. The problem is when the Rangers do develop guys they trade them. Middleton, Sandstrom, Ridley, Miller, Savard, Weight, Almonte, Zubov, Jt Miller etc etc