NHL: Can The New York Rangers Prospects Win The Traverse City Tournament?

Tomorrow begins the 2010 Traverse City Tournament, which is a tournament designed for prospects and rookies show off their skills for their future teams. Since the New York Rangers are supposedly in a “re-building” stage, this Tournament may be bigger than ever.

This season’s team of 23 prospects happens to be one of their best since the team of 2007 (which won the whole tournament). Out of the 23 players, 17 participated in this summer’s Rangers Prospect Development camp. Among the group are this season’s draftees Dylan Mcilrath, Christian Thomas, Andrew Yogan, Jason Wilson, and Randy McNaught.

Also on this year’s team are Ryan Bourque, Ethan Werek, Roman Horak, Daniel Maggio, Scott Stajcer, and Sam Klassen, all of whom were on the prospect team last season. Forward Evgeny Grachev will return to the team for the third straight season, and many believe he could lead them through this tournament.

Top prospects Derek Stepan and Ryan McDonagh will also be key parts to this year’s prospect team.

Why could this team become Traverse City Champs?

To many this tournament may not be an important one, and they can care less whether or not the team even scores a goal. But to others, including myself, this will be a very important tournament—and a tournament the Rangers could very well win.

With a powerful offense, a strong defense, and stellar young goaltenders, the Rangers prospects may end on top in Traverse City.

The offense

This year’s offensive squad is a very good one.

Players such as Evgeny Grachev, Derek Stepan, Kelsey Tessier (recently signed), Ethan Werek, Andrew Yogan, Christian Thomas, Roman Horak, and Ryan Bourque will lead the way offensively, and should be able to gel well together.

Stepan with his speed, Werek with his shot, and Grachev with his stick-handling skills, the Rangers have one strong line of forwards to watch out for. These players will be watched closely by the Rangers coaching staff, because many of them will be at training camp this summer.

Which forward may be in for a huge tournament?

I believe the answer to that question is Evgeny Grachev. He has a lot to prove to the Rangers organization, especially because this will be his third attempt at making the team. Watch for Grachev to make a major impact on this year’s prospect team, maybe even leading them through the tournament.

The defense

This season’s defensive corps is installed with extremely talented prospects, including first-round pick (10th overall) Dylan Mcilrath, Ryan McDonagh, Jyri Niemi, Lee Baldwin, and Thomas Kundratek.

With a mix of rough defenseman in Mcilrath and McDonagh, and a pack of solid shutdown and puck carrying defenseman in Niemi, Kundratek, Baldwin, and more, this year’s team has a very strong blue line.

The main defensemen on this team, in my opinion, are Ryan McDonagh, Dylan Mcilrath, Thomas Kundratek, and Jyri Niemi. They will definitely be top competitors for a spot on this season New York Rangers team.

Which defenseman may be in for a huge tournament?

The Rangers top defensive prospect, in my opinion, is Ryan McDonagh. He probably has the best shot at making the Rangers team out of training camp and will definitely impress during the tournament.

Who is the Rangers top goaltending prospect?

Goaltending is not a position the Rangers will be worrying about anytime soon, as they have an excellent (still fairly young) goaltender in Henrik Lundqvist. They do have Chad Johnson who will likely be starting goalie for the Rangers affiliate Hartford Wolf Pack, but who is their next goaltending star?

The two goaltenders headed to Traverse City are Scott Stajcer and Cam Talbot. Of the two prospects, the better of them looks to be Scott Stajcer, but that doesn’t mean Talbot is bad. Stajcer is younger, age 19, opposed to Talbot, 23, and Stajcer looked as if he had more talent than the rest of the young goalies participating in the Rangers' development camp.

Though Stajcer will likely be 31 years old by the time Hank turns over his starting job, it doesn’t mean he won’t be a NHLer.

For anyone interested in following the Traverse City Tournament, there will be blog coverage on the Rangers website, and I am looking into a website that may have live streaming of the games (pointstreak.com).

I will also have a small postgame article after each game passes if anyone is interested in looking at that.

Thanks for the read, hope you enjoyed. Feel free to comment below.

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