Rangers’ biggest 1st-round busts in NHL Draft since 2000, including Lias Andersson
Whiffing on a first-round draft pick, especially a top-10 pick, can be a disaster for any franchise. Though the New York Rangers have had some big first-round hits since 2000, including Chris Kreider, J.T. Miller and Marc Staal, there have also been some big-league busts that have hampered their ability to compete for the Stanley Cup.
Those misfires include back-to-back failures to hit on top-10 picks in the late 2010s, selecting one of the few duds in the talent-filled first round in 2003, and two top-10 selections who had long careers in hockey but never lived up to their draft status.
So, perhaps it’s a good thing the Rangers sent their first-round pick, No. 12 overall, to the Pittsburgh Penguins this year!
Here’s a look at five of the Rangers’ biggest first-round disappointments in the past 25 years.
Related: NHL insider provides Jarome Iginla reason why Rangers shouldn’t give up on Alexis Lafreniere
Lias Andersson (2017; Round 1, No. 7)
The Rangers had made the Stanley Cup Playoffs for seven straight seasons when they selected Swedish forward Lias Andersson with the seventh pick in 2017. Andersson had helped HV-71 win the Swedish Hockey League title earlier that spring.
Andersson became the youngest player in Rangers history to score a goal in his NHL debut when he tallied against the Washington Capitals on March 26, 2018. But that was just about the only thing that went right for him in New York. He was immature — and not nearly as skilled as the Rangers hoped. Andersson chafed at demotions to AHL Hartford, failed to make any NHL impact and worked his way back to Sweden before he was traded to the Los Angeles Kings in October 2021.
Unfortunately for the Kings, Andersson was no better on the West Coast than he was on the East Coast. He signed with the Montreal Canadiens in the summer of 2023, spent all of 2023-24 in the AHL, then signed to play in Switzerland, where he remains today. His seven goals and 17 points in 110 games, including three goals and nine points in 66 games with the Rangers, look like they’ll be his final numbers in the NHL.
Andersson’s most lasting impact on the Rangers is positive one, though; the player they drafted with the second-round pick they got in the trade with the Kings was Will Cuylle.
Vitali Kravtsov (2018; Round 1, No. 9)
The only thing worse than whiffing on a top-10 pick is doing it again the next year. That’s what the Rangers did with Vitali Kravtsov, a Russian forward who never came close to becoming the star the Rangers hoped he’d be after taking him with the ninth pick in 2018.
Kravtsov played his post-draft year with Traktor Chelyabinsk in the KHL, then came to North America and played 39 games for Hartford in the American Hockey League before he was loaned back to Traktor. He wound up there again in 2020-21 after failing to make the Rangers out of training camp, but ended up playing 20 games for New York, finishing with two goals and four points.
Like Andersson, Kravtsov was at odds with the Rangers and it was back to Traktor and the KHL for him in 2021-22, as it was obvious he wasn’t ready for the NHL. But he returned the Rangers in June 2022 and played 28 games for them in 2022-23. However, after putting up just three goals and six points, the Rangers traded him to the Vancouver Canucks on Feb. 25, 2023.
Kravtsov has played the past two seasons with Traktor and figures to attract NHL interest after a 27-goal, 58-point, plus-31 season in 2024-25. Don’t expect the Rangers to be one of the interested parties.
Hugh Jessiman (2003; Round 1, No. 12)
The first round of the 2003 draft is regarded by many as among the best, if not the best, in NHL history. It included the second-winningest goaltender all-time (Marc-Andre Fleury) and four players who scored at least 400 goals (Eric Staal, Jeff Carter, Zach Parise and Corey Perry). Of the 30 players taken in the first round that year, 13 played at least 1,000 games.
And then there was Hugh Jessiman.
The Rangers, mired in a stretch that saw them miss the Stanley Cup Playoffs for seven straight seasons, took the 6-foot-6 power forward after a sensational first season at Dartmouth that saw him score 23 goals and finish with 47 points in 34 games. But his offensive number dropped in 2003-04, and an ankle injury limited him to 12 games in 2005.
Jessiman turned pro after that but never caught on with the Rangers, splitting four seasons between Hartford and Charlotte, then an ECHL team. The Rangers gave him away to the Nashville Predators in October 2008, he signed with the Chicago Blackhawks in August 2010 and was traded to the Florida Panthers in February 2011.
Florida finally gave him a cup of coffee in the NHL. He played two games for the Panthers, going scoreless while playing a total of 14:42 but becoming the last of the 2003 first-rounders to play an NHL game.
Jessiman remained in the AHL through 2012-13, then played two seasons in Europe before retiring in 2015. His name is guaranteed to elicit groans from Rangers fans of that era.
Dylan McIlrath (2010; Round 1, No. 10)
There were a lot of heads shaking after the Rangers used the No. 10 overall pick in the 2010 draft on Dylan McIlrath, a 6-foot-5, 240-pound defenseman who many felt was too slow and not skilled enough to succeed at the NHL level. The skeptics were right. Especially after a severe knee injury early in his career made him even less mobile.
McIlrath has had a long pro hockey career, but just 92 games of it have come in the NHL – and only 38 of those were for the Rangers. His only offensive production came in 2015-16, when he had two goals and four points in 34 games.
His greatest success has come with his current employer, the Washington Capitals. He captained Hersey, their AHL farm team, to back-to-back Calder Cup championships in 2023 and 2024, and earned a role as a seventh defenseman in the NHL this past season, fighting Matt Rempe, among others, playing 17 games for the Eastern Conference regular-season champs and being a healthy scratch on most other nights. It was enough to earn him a new two-year contract through the 2026-27 season.
McIlrath’s career would be a good one if he were a late-round pick. As a first-rounder, he was the Rangers’ third top-10 bust in a four-year span.
Al Montoya (2004; Round 1, No. 6)
Drafting goaltenders high in the first round was in vogue early in the 21st century. But for every goalie like Fleury, who figures to be a first-ballot Hockey Hall of Famer as soon as he’s eligible, there are guys like Al Montoya, who never matched his draft position.
With Mike Richter’s career over and the Rangers having missed the playoffs for seven straight seasons, they were excited for the chance to draft Montoya, who had led Team USA to its first World Junior Championship gold medal in January 2004. He had also won 56 games in two seasons at Michigan.
However, the Rangers and Montoya were unable to agree on a contract in the summer of 2004, and he returned to Michigan for a third season before the two sides came to terms in the summer of 2005. Unfortunately for Montoya, that was the same year a seventh-round pick from Sweden named Henrik Lundqvist arrived in North America. Lundqvist won the starting job and went on to a Hall of Fame career. Montoya went on to … Hartford. And San Antonio. And six NHL teams (including the New York Islanders) as a decent backup goaltender before he retired from professional hockey in 2018-19.
Montoya’s career was hurt by being in the wrong place at the wrong time. But his career numbers (168 games played, 67-49-24, 2.65 GAA, .908 save percentage) look more like those of a sixth-round pick, not the sixth player picked in his draft year.
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