Grading the New York Rangers' 2025 Draft Picks
A top prospect fell into their lap, a mystery pick broke the grading scale, and value reigned supreme. Here are the Rangers' draft day grades.
I am bringing this segment back to the site, after a hiatus of a couple of years. These are my draft day grades for how I think the New York Rangers did. The grading is based on a few things:
- The player themselves,
- Their location in the draft, and
- Their selection spot against their ranking.
Obviously then someone getting an A+ in later rounds isn't saying that the player is a sure thing, just that the selection is incredible value for where it happened (spoiler alert, this happens below).
The Rangers were widely considered to have done well for what they had in front of them. They made some enormous reaches as they always do, but this year those reaches were actually in the right direction of what I would want. The below also features a draft grade I have never given before: "???."
With that said, let's do it.
Malcom Spence, RW
2nd Round, 43rd Overall
Grade: A+
This grade is a culmination of where Spence was selected, and how highly the draft analyst contingent had him ranked.
Spence was easily viewed as a first-round talent, ranked as high as the 16th best prospect on the board (TSN) and as low as 33rd. Almost everyone had him falling in the 16-25 range. When Friday came and went without him being selected, he was the top prospect on the board with most draft analyists talking about him still being available.
That he lasted until the Rangers at 43 was really fortuitous for Chris Drury and company. There is one thing that scared teams away—which I detailed below—but I love Drury ignoring what I think is a very explainable "dip" in his production and making the pick anyway.
