Why Rangers have love/hate relationship with No. 12 pick ahead of 2025 NHL Draft
To say the New York Rangers have had mixed results with the No. 12 pick in the NHL Draft is an understatement. They made one of the worst selections in franchise history with the 12th selection; but they’re most recent stab at picking 12th worked out quite well.
The Rangers right now own the No. 12 overall pick in the 2025 NHL Draft, after dropping back one spot in the draft lottery Monday. The Rangers had a three percent chance of moving up to the top pick, but the Islanders instead won the lottery with only slightly better odds (3.5 percent) going in.
We say “right now” because the Rangers must decide if they want to hold on to their 2025 first-round pick or turn it over to the Pittsburgh Penguins. The Rangers traded this pick to the Vancouver Canucks on Jan. 31 when they acquired J.T. Miller. The Canucks then flipped it to the Penguins in a deal for defenseman Marcus Pettersson.
Since the pick is top-13 protected, the Rangers can keep it this season and then send an unprotected 2026 first-round pick to the Penguins, or give this year’s pick to Pittsburgh and retain their 2026 selection in the first round.
It’s not an easy decision for Rangers general manager Chris Drury and Co., but one that the Rangers need to make 48 hours before the start of the draft June 27.
If they do keep this year’s pick, it’ll be the sixth time the Rangers select 12th overall. Of the previous five, Hugh Jessiman is an all-time Rangers bust and Marc Staal is a distinguished alum who played nearly 1,200 games in the NHL.
Let’s break down the five players selected 12th overall by the Rangers.
Related: Why Rangers should consider bringing Morgan Barron back to anchor 3rd line
Ranking Rangers all-time 12th overall draft picks, from worst to best
Let’s cut to the chase and start this list with the worst of the worst, and work our way up.
Hugh Jessiman – F – 2003
There’ve been some really poor first-round selections made by the Rangers over the years. None are in the same league as Hugh Jessiman.
The 6-foot-6 product of Dartmouth College was not a good skater nor was he talented enough to play on some very bad Rangers teams of that era. In fact, Jessiman never played a single game with the Rangers. He bounced between the AHL and ECHL in the minors for four seasons before the Rangers dumped him on the Nashville Predators on Oct. 30, 2008.
A career minor leaguers, Jessiman did appear in two NHL games with the Florida Panthers in the latter part of the 2010-11 season. He and defenseman Shawn Belle, the No. 30 overall pick by the St. Louis Blues who played 20 games, are the only players selected in the first round of the 2003 draft to appear in fewer than 192 games. Thirteen players from that stacked first round played in more than 1,000 NHL games.
The list of players the Rangers missed on after selecting Jessiman include Dustin Brown, Brent Seabrook, Zach Parise, Ryan Getzlaf, Brent Burns, Ryan Kesler, Mike Richards and Corey Perry. And that’s just in the first round. We won’t even pile on with Patrice Bergeron, Shea Weber, Loui Eriksson, David Backes and Jimmy Howard from the second round.
In one of the great drafts in NHL history, the Rangers had a massive fail selecting Jessiman No. 12 overall.
Pierre Jarry – F – 1969
Maybe this isn’t quite fair to Pierre Jarry, who played seven seasons and 344 games in the NHL. But the Rangers first-round selection in 1969 lands as their second-worst No. 12 overall pick because he lasted less than one season on Broadway.
Jarry played 34 games with the Rangers as a rookie in 1971-72 and scored three goals, including the first two of his NHL career in the same game against the California Golden Seals on Nov. 21, 1971. But he was traded to the Toronto Maple Leafs on Feb. 20, 1972.
What compounded their failure is that the Rangers acquired defenseman Jim Dorey, who played one game for them that season, his last in the NHL. Jarry went on to a decent career with the Maple Leafs, Detroit Red Wings and Minnesota North Stars, even scoring 21 goals in 1975-76.
Wayne Dillon – C – 1975
The Rangers had high hopes for Wayne Dillon, who was a prolific scorer in junior and for two seasons with the Toronto Toros in the now-defunct professional World Hockey Association. Dillon had a good start on Broadway, too. He was fifth on the Rangers with 21 goals as a rookie in 1975-76 and finished sixth with 45 points in 79 games.
He had 17 goals and 46 points the following season, but cratered in 1977-78 with just five goals and 18 points in 59 games for the Rangers, who sent him to the minors for a spell. Dillon bolted the Rangers and returned to the WHA after that season, and played one more NHL season with the Winnipeg Jets in 1979-80.
All told, Dillon played 229 NHL games and was out of hockey by 1982.
Dave Gagner – C – 1983
Dave Gagner is far and away the most talented player selected 12th overall by the Rangers. However, the bulk of that production came after his brief tenure with the Rangers, which consisted of three seasons bouncing between Broadway and the minors.
After just 80 games in the Blueshirt, Gagner was shipped to the Minnesota North Stars in 1987. He scored 30+ goals in six consecutive season for the North Stars/Dallas Stars, including 40 in both the 1989-90 and 1990-91 seasons. That latter campaign, Gagner helped lead the North Stars to the Stanley Cup Final, where they lost to the Pittsburgh Penguins.
Gagner, who also played for the Maple Leafs, Calgary Flames, Panthers and Vancouver Canucks, finished his career with 318 goals and 719 points in 946 NHL games.
Marc Staal – D – 2005
Marc Staal played far more games for the Rangers than the four other No. 12 overall picks combined. In fact, Staal played the sixth most games in Rangers history — fourth among defensemen — with 892, and another 107 Stanley Cup Playoff games.
He would’ve played even more games with the Rangers had a serious concussion and later a troubling eye injury not robbed part of his prime from 2011-13. But his remains a long and successful career with the Rangers, one that included a trip to the 2014 Stanley Cup Final against the Los Angeles Kings and three trips to the Eastern Conference Final.
Never an offensive star, Staal instead was a steady, defensive-minded defenseman, one who spent many seasons on a shutdown pair with Dan Girardi. He ended up playing 1,136 NHL games after concluding his career with the Detroit Red Wings, Panthers and Philadelphia Flyers.
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