New York Rangers Draft Radar January Scouting Report

Back for the first 2026 edition of the Draft Radar Scouting Report, we’re going to continue to look at some of the most exciting prospects available in the upcoming draft class. Fresh off the World Juniors, Virggo Bjorck and Adam Novotny are a pair of names who stood out for Teams Sweden and Czechia. While Tynan Lawrence won't be a part of Team Canada, he will continue to be one of the most exciting prospects in this draft class, as he just made the jump from the USHL to BU. 

Since Roberto graciously drove the bus last month, I’ll add my two cents to his choice of prospects in addition to the usual update from last month’s report. 

Gavin McKenna: As Roberto pointed out, McKenna isn’t having the level of success you’d like to see from him in his first season of NCAA hockey. All things considered, I don’t believe that should deter NHL teams from viewing him as a top three prospect who should probably still go first overall. It hasn’t been the smoothest road in terms of development, but all the tools are there for him to become a franchise cornerstone. He’s mainly playing the wing with Penn State, but the goal for whatever team lucky enough to draft him should be to develop him into a center. 

In 22 games played, McKenna now has 29 points with 10 goals and 19 assists. Across the seven games played in the World Juniors, McKenna averaged two points-per-game with 14 in total. While the tournament didn't come to the ending he or the Canadians had in mind, it was proof that he is still an elite talent coming in this year's draft class.

Ivar Stenberg: As I made mention of with McKenna, if a team like the Rangers ends up with the first overall pick, the priority needs to be a center. While I don’t doubt Stenberg is going to become a tremendous NHL player, I’m incredibly wary about building your team around a winger. The Rangers are absolutely to blame for a lot of that, but nevertheless I don’t think you can go wrong with either McKenna or Stenberg with the top two picks.  

In 30 games on the season with Frolunda, Stenberg now has seven goals and 21 assists for a total of 28 points, one shy of point-per-game pace in a men’s league. Stenberg also played a huge role on Team Sweden, who won the 2026 World Junior Championship, with ten points in seven games. 

Keaton Verhoeff: This is absolutely a player who will rightfully excite a lot of teams around the NHL, specifically ones drafting in the top five. Because the Rangers don’t really need a right-handed defenseman, I don’t particularly have my tail wagging about him, but that’s not to suggest he isn't undoubtedly the top defenseman in this draft. He’s picked up six goals and 11 assists for 17 points in 22 games with the University of North Dakota, and in five games with Team Canada at the World Juniors he collected four assists.

Viggo Bjorck - Center/RW, Djurgardens IF, SHL 

Along with Caleb Malhotra, Viggo Bjorck is quickly becoming one of my top forward candidates for the Rangers in the (likely) event they finish with a top 10-15 pick. A highly intelligent, playmaking forward, Bjorck plays the game with great vision, possesses a blistering wrist shot, and has the ability to calmly and confidently generate offense. 

In 30 games through the 2025-26 season, Bjorck has collected a total of eight points split across four goals and four assists with Djurgårdens IF top team. The 5-10, 172 pound forward can play center but is primarily listed as a right wing. While his size is a concern for some—Chris Drury and the Rangers front office potentially included—he can handle the physical side of the game and comes with experience playing against grown men in Sweden. That should result in what is hoped to be a smooth transition to the NHL. 

One of the more interesting things about him is that so many scouts are impressed by his ability to slow the game down, specifically when it comes to making plays. His poise with the puck, along with his vision and play-making, should sound a bit familiar as that’s quite similar to how Adam Fox plays the game. In that sense, there is a world in which Bjorck can be the forward version of Fox, which for any team would be an exciting player to add—especially on the Rangers. 

While it’s still incredibly early in this young player's career, he already has a bit of championship DNA built into him, as he’s not only fresh off the 2026 World Junior Championship, but led Djurgårdens Jr. to a championship in the 2024-25 season. During the regular season that year, Bjorck collected 27 goals and 47 assists for a total of 74 points in just 42 games played. He also scored in the only game he spent with Djurgardens third tier team in the SHL. 

In the 2026 World Juniors, Bjorck played a huge role on Team Sweden, as he had three goals and six assists for nine points in seven games played. In the clip below, you can see some of his highlights throughout the tournament and two things in particular stand out to me. First you can see right on that first goal the clip shows, the way he receives the pass, takes one step and fires that shot home is incredibly effective and something the Rangers need more of on their roster.

Additionally, the way he passes the puck with such subtlety, often without looking, is such a key skill. Whether it's through the rush, setting linemates up with time and space, or simply sending the puck into high danger areas, Bjorck makes things happen with the puck on his stick. And not for nothing, the way he controlled the puck on some of those power plays, he'd be a great player for Mika Zibanejad to mentor on this Rangers team.

Arguably one of the more impressive stat lines with Bjorck is that during his U18 season, he collected a total of 98 points. If you combine the point tallies of Elias Pettersson, Elias Lindholm, Leo Carlsson, and Anton Frondell from the same point in time of their careers, they combined for a total of 97 points.