Rangers 3 best — and worst — NHL drafts in past 40 years
The New York Rangers have high hopes as they prepare for the 2026 NHL Draft in Buffalo on June 26-27. After finishing last in the Eastern Conference and 30th overall, the Rangers own 11 picks in the seven-round selection process, including Nos. 5 and 26 in the first round.
The Rangers have had their ups and downs at the draft table during the past four decades. They’ve found later-round gems like star goaltender Igor Shesterkin (fourth round, No. 118 in 2014), Ryan Callahan (fourth round, No. 127 in 2004) and the “King” of them all, Henrik Lundqvist (seventh round, No. 205 in 2000).
First-rounders like Brian Leetch (first round, No. 9 in 1986) and Chris Kreider (first round, No, 19 in 2009) became stars — Leetch is the only Rangers’ first-rounder in the Hockey Hall of Fame.
But the Blueshirts have also had more than their share of duds — 2021 first-rounder Brennan Othmann is the most recent, having never lived up to being the 16th player taken five years ago before the Rangers cut bait and traded him to the Calgary Flames on March 6. The most memorable flameout was in 2003, one of the most talent-laden drafts ever, when the Rangers missed big-time by taking forward Hugh Jessiman; he played just two NHL games, neither for New York.
This is the first time since the NHL began the draft in 1963 that the Rangers pick No. 5. It will be their first first-rounder since 2024, when they took defenseman EJ Emery with the 30th pick. They didn’t have a first-round selection last year, selecting forward Malcolm Spence in the second round (No. 43).
Here’s a look at the three best and three worst drafts by the Rangers in the past 40 years:
Best of the best
1986: Leetch leads the way
The Rangers took Leetch, a high school defenseman, No. 9 in 1986 and watched as he excelled as a freshman at Boston College before joining future Blueshirts teammate (and 1985 second-rounder) Mike Richter on Team USA at the 1988 Calgary Olympics. Both players turned pro after that, with Leetch putting up two goals and 14 points in 17 games.
He won the Calder Trophy as NHL rookie of the year the following season, the Norris Trophy as its top defenseman in 1992 and 1997 — and became the first U.S.-born player to win the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP in 1994 when he helped power the Rangers to their first Stanley Cup championship since 1940. He is second in Rangers history in games played (1,129) and points (981), and first in assists (741). He was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2009 and named as one of the NHL’s 100 Greatest Players in 2017.
The Rangers whiffed on their next two picks. But fourth-rounder Troy Mallette (No. 72) and sixth-rounder Darren Turcotte (No. 114) each played more than 600 NHL games; Turcotte had at least 25 goals in four straight seasons from 1989-93.
Leetch’s accomplishments and status make 1986 the most memorable draft in Rangers history.
1990: Two Cup winners
The Rangers missed on their 1990 first-round pick, defenseman Michael Stewart, but connected on a couple of low-round picks who helped them win the Cup in 1994.
Want to win a trivia contest? Ask a friend who led the Rangers in scoring in 1993-94. The answer isn’t Mark Messier or Leetch — it’s Russia-born defenseman Sergei Zubov, who had 89 points, five more than Messier. The Rangers nabbed him with the first pick in the fifth round, which they received from Quebec after the Nordiques signed Guy Lafleur away from New York. Zubov also won a Cup with the Dallas Stars and was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2019.
The draft had 12 rounds back then, and the Rangers used their 12th-round pick to take another Russian, center Sergei Nemchinov, with the 244th pick. Nemchinov made the Rangers roster in 1991-92 and had 22 goals and 49 points in ’93-94. He spent the first six of his 11 NHL seasons with the Blueshirts.
The biggest point producer in the 1990 draft was second-rounder Doug Weight, but just 70 of his 1,033 points came with the Rangers. However, he also played a small part in the 1994 Cup win; the Rangers traded him to the Edmonton Oilers for forward Esa Tikkanen on March 17, 1993. “Tik” was one of seven former Oilers who helped the Rangers win it all.
2020: Impressive top three
The Class of 2020 is on its way to ending the draft slump that saw the Rangers select just one impact player (Shesterkin) in the 2010s.
Alexis Lafreniere hasn’t produced the way the Rangers hoped after they took him with the first overall pick, but he does have 116 goals and 250 points in 462 games, doesn’t turn 25 until Oct. 11, and showed late in 2025-26 that he could be ready for a breakout season. Defenseman Braden Schneider, taken No. 19 in the first round, is a competent NHL defenseman, and second-rounder (No. 50) Will Cuylle has back-to-back seasons with 20 goals and 300+ hits.
Goalie Dylan Garand, taken in the fourth round (No. 103), impressed in a three-game sampling late in the season and is in line to back up Shesterkin next season. Forwards Brett Berard (fifth round, No. 134) and Matt Rempe (sixth round, No. 165) have had cups of coffee in the NHL and could provide depth in the bottom six.
Worst of the worst
1999: Two top-10 misses
It’s bad enough to swing and miss on a top-five pick. But the Rangers fanned on two of them in 1999.
The Blueshirts got the fourth overall pick in a trade with the Tampa Bay Lightning and selected forward Pavel Brendl, who was compared to Mike Bossy during his junior career. But he didn’t have Bossy’s work ethic, and never played for the Rangers, who sent him to the Philadelphia Flyers in August 2001 as part of the package that brought Eric Lindros to Broadway. He had 11 goals in 78 NHL games before returning to Europe, where he played until 2016.
GM Neil Smith obtained the No. 9 pick in a deal with the Calgary Flames, and with Messier well into his 30s, he used that pick on center Jamie Lundmark. It turned out to be another huge miss — Lundmark didn’t make the Rangers until the fall of 2002 and played just two full seasons with them before he was traded to the Phoenix Coyotes early in 2005-06. He played a total of 295 games with five teams, putting up 11 goals and 30 points in his 114 games on Broadway.
None of the remaining 1999 draftees made the NHL.
2003: Hugh who?
The 2003 draft was one of the biggest collections of talent in NHL history — 16 of the 30 first-rounders played in an NHL All-Star Game or made a post-season All-Star team. Unfortunately for the Rangers, Hugh Jessiman wasn’t one of them.
The Blueshirts took Jessiman, a 6-foot-6, 221-pound forward from Dartmouth, with the No. 12 pick — passing on future stars such as Zach Parise, Ryan Getzlaf, Brent Burns and Corey Perry. Jessiman was coming off a 23-goal, 47-point freshman season in college, and the Rangers had big expectations for him.
Little did they know that Jessiman would never reach those numbers again. He played two more seasons at Dartmouth and four in the Rangers’ minor-league system before they traded him to the Nashville Predators. He never played for the Preds nor the Chicago Blackhawks, who signed him in 2010. He did reach the NHL in 2011, playing two games with the Florida Panthers, then spent the rest of his career in the AHL and Europe before retiring in 2015.
Nigel Dawes (fifth round, No. 149) was the only draftee to play more than 100 games with the Rangers; he had 25 goals and 49 points in 121 games.
2015 and 2016: 0-for-13
The Rangers didn’t have a first-round pick in either 2015 or 2016, and lacked a second-rounder in ’16 as well. They selected 13 players in those two years and got nothing from them.
Their 2015 second-rounder (No, 41) was forward Ryan Gropp, who turned pro two years later, spent four seasons in the minors, mostly with the Rangers’ AHL affiliate in Hartford, and played in Europe since 2020. They took Finnish center Aleksi Saarela in the third round (No. 89) but traded him to the Carolina Hurricanes in February 2016; he played one NHL game each with the Hurricanes and Panthers. The only 2015 draftee to play a game with the Rangers was seventh-rounder (No. 184) Adam Huska, a goaltender who lost 7-3 to the Colorado Avalanche in his only NHL appearance on Dec. 8, 2022.
Defenseman Sean Day (third round, No. 81) was their first pick in 2016. Three years earlier, Day was given exceptional player status by Hockey Canada, allowing him to play junior hockey at age 15. He turned pro with the Rangers in 2016 but never got into an NHL game before being waived in 2020. He played two NHL games with Tampa Bay in December 2021 but spent the rest of his time in the AHL before playing in Sweden in 2024-25.
Fourth-round pick (No, 98) Tarmo Reunanen had one assist in four NHL games; Tim Gettinger (fifth round, No. 141) had one assist in 16 games. The Classes of 2016 and 2014 are the only ones in the past 55 years that had no players score an NHL goal.
