The 2022 NHL Draft has come and gone, and the Rangers had six selections overall, as they lost their first-round pick to Winnipeg in the Andrew Copp deal. Here’s a look at the Blueshirts’ entire haul:
Round 2 (No. 63 overall): LW Adam Sykora, HK Nitra (Slovakia Extraliga)
Sykora was a teammate of New Jersey’s No. 2 overall pick, D Simon Nemec, in Slovakia, and the 17-year-old had 10 goals and seven assists for Nitra. He was scheduled to play for Slovakia in the World Juniors as well, before it was cancelled due to COVID-19 concerns.
Round 3 (No. 97 overall): C Bryce McConnell-Barker, Sault St. Marie Greyhounds (OHL)
The 6-foot-1, 194-pounder had 23 goals and 26 assists in 68 games with the Greyhounds last season, and added a goal and four assists in the playoffs.
Round 4 (No. 111 overall): C Noah Laba, Lincoln Stars (USHL)
Back-to-back centers for the Rangers, who could lose nearly their entire starting set of middlemen. Laba is committed to Colgate, and he had 15 goals and 24 assists for the Stars last season.
Round 5 (No. 159 overall): D Vittorio Mancini, Nebraska-Omaha)
A former US National Team Development player, Mancini played in the Swedish junior leagues for two seasons and spent 2020-21 with the USHL’s Green Bay Gamblers before his freshman year at Nebraska-Omaha, where the 6-foot-4 20-year-old had five assists and 26 penalty minutes in 38 games.
Round 5 (No. 161 overall): LW Maxim Barbashev, Moncton (QMJHL)
The 18-year-old had 15 goals and 27 assists in 59 games with the Wildcats last year, after six goals and four assists in 10 games for Moncton in 2020-21.
Round 6 (No. 191 overall): C Zakary Karpa, Harvard
Karpa’s father, Dave, played 13 NHL seasons with four teams (including two seasons with the Rangers, and one year with the Islanders’ AHL affiliate). The younger Karpa spent two years with the U.S. National Team Development program and two more in the USHL before his freshman year at Harvard, where he tallied six goals, six assists, six penalty minutes, and a plus-9 rating in 33 games.
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