The New York Rangers were once considered one of the very best prospect pools in the League not too long ago. Lucky ping pong balls at the NHL Lottery Draft landed Kaapo Kakko second overall in 2019. That was followed by Alexis Lafreniere first overall in 2020.
Those two prospects alone were sure to raise the Rangers in the rankings, but they also selected strong defenders like K’Andre Miller, Nils Lundkvist, and Braden Schneider to boot.
So how highly regarded was the Rangers’ prospect pipeline before the start of the 2020-21 season? Corey Pronman of The Athletic ranked them first overall, but just a few years later he’s dropped them to 15th.