Rangers look to Russian teen to reverse 55 years of draft futility

DALLAS — The NHL’s inaugural draft was held in 1963 in Montreal, where six players were chosen in a private affair. It has since evolved into a sprawling extravaganza, the latest of which opened here Friday night with the 31-team first round.

Over the previous 55 sweepstakes, the Rangers had selected 514 players. Not once — not once — have they selected a forward who would be named to an NHL first All-Star team. Did I say not once?

Yes, I did.

But perhaps we will look back at 2018 as the time that changed.

Because when all was said and done, the Blueshirts were absolutely giddy with the selection of talented winger Vitali Kravtsov at ninth overall, a player of whom director of player personnel Gord Clark said: “He’s a Kuznetsov-type.”

That’s Evgeny Kuznetsov, the 26-year-old Washington Stanley Cup-winning winger who led the playoffs in scoring with 32 points (12 goals, 20 assists) and is well on his way to stardom.

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The Rangers did not trade up. Fact is the Rangers did not attempt to move up. Clark likes to go off the board, and though Kravtsov wasn’t exactly a stretch, more highly rated players such as winger Oliver Wahlstrom and defensemen Evan Bouchard and Noah Dobson were still available.

More highly rated by everyone else, that is. For Clark proclaimed that Kravtsov, who had breakout playoffs with 11 points (six goals, five assists) in 16 games for Chelyabinsk after being buried most of the year as 18-year-olds generally are in the KHL, was the club’s second-rated forward in the draft behind Carolina’s second-overall selection Andrei Svechnikov. That’s right, more highly rated by the Rangers than Filip Zadina, who went sixth to Detroit.

There was no flim-flam to general manager Jeff Gorton. The Rangers did keep three first-rounders, while pulling off a deal with Ottawa to move from 26 to 22 (with No. 48 as the sweetener to the Senators) to grab Wisconsin-bound American defenseman K’Andre Miller. The Rangers selected Swedish defenseman Nils Lundkvist 28th overall.

This was a night about future upside for the Rangers, who aren’t kidding around about this reconstruction. The future with Kravtsov may not be now, but it is projected as sooner rather than later. He will be free of his KHL contract following this season, but there’s a possibility he could spend 2018-19 in North America, a la Filip Chytil, if all parties believe that is in his best interest.

The Blueshirts went for skill. Kravtsov’s speed and playmaking ability are at an elite level. Again, it should be a matter of when, not if, for the lefty winger who plays his off-side. The kid has eyes for New York.

Administrations run by Emile Francis, John Ferguson, Fred Shero, Craig Patrick, Phil Esposito, Neil Smith, Glen Sather and Gorton have managed to select two first-team All-Star goaltenders in John Vanbiesbrouck (72nd overall in 1981) and Henrik Lundqvist (205th in 2000) and two first-team defensemen in Brad Park (second overall in 1966) and Brian Leetch (ninth overall in 1986).

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Teams invariably make mistakes. That is part of the territory of evaluating adolescents. But come on. The paltry yield of dynamic difference-makers over the last five-and-a-half decades is hard to believe.

The Blueshirts had made multiple first-round picks four times previously. They never truly capitalized on the opportunity, even though they did all right for themselves in 1977 by choosing Lucien DeBlois eighth and Ron Duguay 13th. The problem was that they passed twice on Mike Bossy. He made a first All-Star team (or two) after being selected by the Islanders at 15th overall. (By the way, the Maple Leafs also passed on perhaps the greatest sniper in NHL history, choosing John Anderson and Trevor Johansen at 11th and 12th, respectively).

Ferguson was the team GM for that one, but it was his successor, Shero, who issued one of the most memorable quotes in Rangers history during the 1978-79 season when discussing Bossy and Duguay.

“I’d rather have Duguay the way he plays,” said the Fog at his Foggiest, “than Bossy the way he plays.”

Yes, that’s what he said.