Well, another NHL Entry Draft has come and gone, and this year’s version was not without its twists and turns. I’d like to give my thoughts about some of the big deals from around the league that went down, but I guess I’ll do that later on.

First things first. Let’s talk about what the Broadway Blueshirts did, because Glen Sather, the team’s president, and his scouting and coaching staff made some intriguing decisions this year.

Of course it’s impossible to judge these selections today, but I’ll break down each of the Ranger picks and add my two cents about whether or not I liked the players the team went after, with some thoughts as to why or why not, as well.

1st round, 20th overall - Michael Del Zotto, D

The most notable selection for the team this year is defenseman Michael Del Zotto, from the Ontario Hockey League’s Oshawa Generals. Del Zotto was one of the highest ranked players for this draft a year ago, but his stock slid due to a lack of progress in his own end this season.

There are quite a few things to be excited about with this player. For one, he had more points in the OHL last season, 63, than either Drew Doughty, Zach Bogosian, or Alex Pietrangelo, the three defensemen who were selected 2nd, 3rd and 4th, respectively, in the draft. In fact, only two defensemen in the entire OHL had more points than Del Zotto in 2007-08, one of them being the Blueshirts’ 2006 first round pick, Bobby Sanguinetti.

Indeed, the 6-foot, 211 pound Del Zotto figures to be a top-notch offensive defenseman, with the ability to move the puck up the ice, make the right pass and quarterback a power play. He’s also not one to shy away from physical play, as Del Zotto has a penchant for making the big hit.

While these are all valuable qualities, however, Del Zotto comes with some issues as well. For one, his play in his own end is supposedly porous. Some teams seemed to be scared off by some maturity issues, which probably feeds into the concern about his defensive play. He started his career playing forward, so it makes sense tha he would enjoy surprising his opposition by joining the rush. The problem is, he often does so at the expense of proper defensive positioning, something that also seems to happen when he looks for the big hit.

Also, while there’s no doubt that his offensive skillset is impressive, his numbers may be over-inflated, as he played on a stacked Generals team that featured two of the best offensive players in the OHL, John Tavares and Brett McLean.

The most important question, however, is whether or not this was the right pick for the Rangers to make. My gut says the team didn’t expect Del Zotto to be available by the time their 20th pick rolled around, which is why they went for him. While I believe Del Zotto is a good player, and any problems with his defensive play can be straightened out, especially with the likes of Tom Renney working with him, I’m not convinced this was the pick the Rangers needed to make.

I’m not terribly disappointed the Rangers selected Del Zotto, but I think the right choice for them was Mattias Tedenby, selected four picks later by the Devils. I think the Rangers need to add some forward scoring talent to their wings, and it looks like Tedenby has the skills to develop into a very solid, skilled 2nd line scorer. Yes, you can never have too many defensemen, but Del Zotto is very similar to what you’re already getting in Sanguinetti.

Like I said, not a horrible pick by any means, and I fully expect Del Zotto to become a solid player, as well as a nice piece of what’s shaping up to be a very solid blue line with Sanguinetti, Staal, Sauer and Girardi, but I think Tedenby would have filled a bigger need.

2nd round, 51st overall - Derek Stepan, C

Admittedly, I know very little about Stepan, a graduate of the famed hockey prep school Shattuck-St. Mary’s, also known as the Alma matter of the Pens’ Sidney Crosby. Stepan put up big scoring numbers there last season, but will be heading to the University of Wisconsin, a school that pumps out NHLers every year, in the fall.

At 6 feet tall and weighing 168 pounds, Stepan is rather smallish, but that was a growing trend at this year’s draft as teams acclimate to the rules of the “new” NHL. Everything about him seems positive, and you’ve gotta love that he’s heading to a fine program like Wisconsin, but I just wonder if the Rangers couldn’t have gotten him later in the draft.

3rd round, 75th overall - Evgeny Grachev, C

This is the pick the Rangers got from the Carolina Hurricanes in the Matt Cullen trade, and this is a pick that’s hard not to like. I believe that the Rangers had their sights set on another Russian, Kirill Petrov, but when the Islanders snagged Petrov two picks earlier, the Rangers were more than content to select his countryman.

Grachev, a former teammate of fellow Russian and Ranger prospect Artem Anisimov, is a big power forward-type, who many had ranked as a first or second rounder. Of course, concerns about Russian players and the ability to get them over to the NHL continue to haunt most NHL teams, but I doubt it’s much of a concern to the wealthy Rangers.

Standing 6-foot-3 and weighing just over 200 pounds, Grachev is a very strong puckhandler who needs to work on his skating ability. Supposedly, the young Russian is capable of playing all three forward positions, a plus for a Ranger team that is heavy down the middle with Chris Drury, Scott Gomez, Brandon Dubinsky, Artem Anisimov and others. The biggest plus, however, is that unlike Petrov, who many believe would be content to stay in Russia, Grachev is interested in playing not only in the NHL, but perhaps even in one of the Canadian junior hockey leagues.

This is my favorite pick in this year’s draft because while Grachev may not be the best player the team got in this draft, he seems to be the best relative to where he was selected. Of course, you never know, Grachev may end up a bust while one of the later selections could become a star. It’s kind of funny that way.

3rd round, 90th overall – Tomas Kundratek, D

The Rangers traded prospect Alex Bourret to the Phoenix Coyotes for this pick, and it’s probably the decision I’m most down on as far as this team’s moves during the draft. If you recall, the Rangers acquired Bourret, a former first round pick in 2005, from Atlanta at the 2007 trade deadline as part of the Pascal Dupuis trade.

Anyone who follows the Ranger organization knows that while Bourret does indeed have tremendous skill and talent, he also has a lack of focus and what has been described as a bad attitude. Although it appears that all that is true, I am still somewhat disappointed that the Rangers traded him, not to mention that all they got was a late third round pick. I would have liked to see them give Bourret another season to try and clean up his act, but I suppose if he didn’t by then, it’s unlikely another team would give up anything remotely valuable for him.

As for the player the Rangers got with the pick, well, there isn’t much to tell. In a weak year for Czech prospects, Kundratek was the top ranked player among his countrymen. He weighs 185 pounds and stands 6-foot-1, with skills at both ends of the ice, but that’s about all there is to read about him.

4th round, 111th overall – Dale Weise, RW

The Rangers reacquired their own fourth rounder, which had ended up in the hands of the Nashville Predators, in exchange for their 7th round pick and next year’s 4th. They used the pick to select Weise, a 6-foot-2, 205 pound wing from the Western Hockey League’s Swift Current Broncos. The almost-20-year-old was passed over in the previous two drafts, but the Rangers decided to pick him after the bruiser added an offensive touch to his game this past season.

I don’t really know what to make of this pick except to say that obviously the team would hope that Weise’s inflated offensive stats are not a fluke, as there seems to be enough physical young forwards, like Dane Byers and Justin Soryal, in the system already. Lest we forget, the team still has Ryan Hollweg and Colton Orr, too, and both are fairly young to boot.

5th round, 141st overall – Chris Doyle, C

The 6-foot, 193 pound Doyle was a point per game (63 points in 63 games) offensive threat last season in the high-scoring Quebec Major Junior Hockey League, playing for the Prince Edward Island Rocket. The knock against him, however, is his consistency.

Seems like a high-risk, high-reward pick, which works for me this low in the draft.

6th round, 171st overall – Mitch Gaulton, D

Similar to the last pick, it’s clear the Rangers are trying to hit a home run here. Gaulton was a highly touted defenseman who played just 20 games for the OHL’s Erie Otters last year due to a serious elbow injury. The Otters drafted him just behind Pietrangelo and just ahead of Bogosian in the 2006 OHL Draft, so clearly there were some good expectations about this kid before he went down.

Gaulton is a 6-foot, 210 pound strong, physical two-way defenseman, according to some scouts, who also has a good shot from the point. He probably won’t be a star, but if he gets healthy, perhaps the Rangers might have gotten a steal here.
Definitely worth the risk this late in the draft, in my opinion.

***

At first glance, this was a decent, if unspectacular draft for the Rangers, but as I’ve said before, at this point, that statement means nothing. Who knows? Perhaps Del Zotto will pick up his defensive game and become every bit the player that Doughty or Bogosian are expected to become. I’ll admit, the potential of a Sanguinetti and Del Zotto pairing on the power play in the future does sound pretty good.

The Grachev pick and the Gaulton pick are the two that seem like the best value picks right now, while the Kundratek pick and the Weise selection are the two I question the most right now.

I mentioned that I wanted to touch on some of the other stuff that happened in the draft that didn’t concern the Rangers, primarily the trades that were made, as I feel that some of these deals were really interesting ones to examine. I’ll get to that in my next post.

Adios.