NHL Draft

A Rangers-Centric Recap of Rounds 2-7 of the 2025 NHL Draft

Unlike day one of the 2025 NHL Draft, the Blueshirts had many kicks at the can and came away with a new set of promising young prospects.

Roberto Solis-Byxbee

29 Jun 2025 — 8 min read

After a boring first day of the NHL draft for the New York Rangers, Drury and co. were primed to get into the action and make some selections of their own on day two. Before we get into it, we'll lightly recap the players the Rangers selected, but you can expect a more thorough dive into each player and their prospect profile coming soon.

Rangers Picks & Day

Out of the eight picks the Rangers made, five of them were defensemen, followed with two wingers, and a single center. It was a little surprising to see the team take so many defenseman, but if they followed the draft strategy of best player available then we shouldn't have any complaints. The team does need to restock its center cupboard, but that may be supplemented and resolved by the free agents they're inviting to camp this year. On the plus side, most of the defenseman they went after came with size and the upside of a strong skating ability. This follows the trend of Drury understanding the back end of the roster needs to be highly mobile.

While there was a fair amount of activity for the Rangers today, something noticeably absent were trades. Not a single trade was made by the Blueshirts, leaving them stuck in their situation of limited cap space and Will Cuylle and K'Andre Miller still needing deals. Add the potential Vladislav Gavrikov saga all Rangers fans have been paying attention to and Drury has some work cut out for himself.

2nd Round

Malcolm Spence #43 Overall | RW/LW, Erie Otters, OHL: Both Chris and I had Spence going in the first round so this is great value for the Rangers in the second round.

3rd Round

Sean Barnhill #70 Overall | Defense, Dubuque Fighting Saints, USHL: This was not a bad pick. Barnhill is a big hulking defenseman who can skate. Drury's love of a sizable prospect came into play here.
Artyom Gonchar #89 Overall | Defense, Magnitogorsk Jr, MHL: The nephew of Sergei Gonchar, not much is known about this defenseman, so we're forced to place our trust in Drury here.

4th Round

Mikkel Eriksen #111 Overall | Center, Farjestad Jr, Swe: A Norwegian center playing in a Swedish junior league, he's a bit smaller and known for his softer hands.

5th Round

Zeb Lindgren #139 Overall | Defense, Skelleftea Jr, Swe: No relation to former Ranger Ryan Lindgren, he's a defenseman with size and great skating ability.

6th Round

Samuel Jung #166 Overall | RW, Karpat Jr, Fin: A second year eligible player, the Czech winger has recently plied his trade in Finland's junior leagues.
Evan Passmore #171 Overall | Defense, Barrie Colts, OHL: Another gigantic defenseman that can skate, Passmore is a good value pick for the Blueshirts. With a bigger role in the future, we can anticipate to see more development from the newest Ranger.

7th Round

Felix Farhammar #203 Overall | Defense, Orebro Jr, Swe: The Rangers last pick of the draft, they went back to the Swedish Junior league to take another defenseman.

Around the Metro

The Metropolitan division for the most part had a strong second day of the draft.

Carolina Hurricanes

The Hurricanes traded back not once but twice throughout the draft but made a slew of savvy picks. They took highly skilled enigma Ivan Ryabkin who could work out and make all the NHL GMs look foolish, and they added a goalie to their stockpile in Semyon Frolov. Chris and I had predicted they'd be in on Ravensbergen but San Jose took the top ranked goalie 30th overall.

Columbus Blue Jackets

While Columbus got an excellent defender in Jackson Smith on day one, their second day of the draft was just okay in comparison. The Blue Jackets also prioritized defenseman in the draft, but were able to snag center Owen Griffin who led all OHL players in goals in the playoffs this season.

New York Islanders

The city rivals continued their strong draft and took several players with a lot of value. Sam Laurilia, who had an exceptionally strong performance for his team in the USHL down the stretch, could end up looking like a steal of a pick in a few years. They even added a goalie in Burke Hood in the sixth round that many pundits had higher on heir draft board. Mathieu Darche had a phenomenal start in his tenure at the helm for the Islanders.

New Jersey Devils

Like the Rangers, the Devils didn't have a pick on day one. But they certainly made up for it on day two. Their second pick of the draft at 63rd overall was Ben Kevan, who is a winger with a lot of scoring upside. This is someone I was hoping the Rangers would target. They rounded off their draft by taking a 6-8 goalie in Trenton Bennett. Unsure if he'll ever see the light of day in the NHL, but the bigger the goalie the less net to shoot at, am I right?

Philadelphia Flyers

One thing about the Flyers' draft strategy that became quickly clear to everyone is they were prioritizing size. They took Carter Amico and Matthew Gard, a defenseman and forward, respectively, both standing at 6-5. Add scoring forward Jack Murtagh to that group and the Flyers came away with a pretty solid collection of prospects to add to their organization.

Pittsburgh Penguins

The Penguins had thirteen draft picks, and ended up making ten on day two. There was a collection of physical, bruising defenseman and smaller skilled wingers that Kyle Dubas and the rest of the Penguins management rolled the dice on. Some notbales include Gabriel D'aigle, who was the second overall pick in the 2023 QMJHL Draft. While between the pipes for the Victoriaville Tigers, D'aigle was absolutely lit up and hung out to dry, so his numbers don't look great, but there is a lot of potential there. Also to no one's surprise Dubas and the Penguins took a former Soo Greyhound forward in Travis Hayes with their fourth round pick.
The Penguins also traded away Conor Timmins and acquired Connor Clifton and the 39th pick from the Buffalo Sabres.

Washington Capitals

The highlight of the Capitals second day was their selection of Milton Gastrin 37th overall. A first round talent nabbed in the second round is always a win for any organization. The fact that Gastrin has skill and leadership qualities he's exhibited at every level he's played at is just a bonus.

Other Player Trades in NHL

John Gibson was finally pried out of Anaheim and sent to Detroit for Petr Mrazek, a 2027 second round pick, and a 2026 fourth round pick.
Jordan Spence (no relation to brand new Ranger prospect Malcolm Spence) was traded from the Los Angeles Kings to the Ottawa Senators for a 2025 third round pick and 2026 sixth round pick.