NY Rangers Were Smart To Show Patience in Middle of NHL Draft

The New York Rangers' patience in the middle rounds of the 2026 NHL Draft was rewarded.

May 8, 2025; Tarrytown, NY, USA; New York Rangers president and general manager Chris Drury speaks during a press conference to introduce new head coach Mike Sullivan at the MSG Training Center in Tarrytown, New York May 8, 2025. / The Journal News-Imagn Images

The New York Rangers entered the 2026 NHL Draft with 11 selections, giving them enough ammunition to maneuver around the board when the opportunity presented itself.

They ended up making three separate trades during the draft. First, they completed a blockbuster with the Vegas Golden Knights, acquiring Pavel Dorofeyev in exchange for the Nos. 26 and 92 picks in the 2026 NHL Draft and a conditional 2028 first-round pick that is top-10 protected. He was quickly signed to an extension.

On Day 2, they made two deals with the Nashville Predators and Seattle Kraken that sort of fused into one. Adam Edstrom was sent to the Predators for Massimo Rizzo and the No. 148 pick. The selection was packaged with No. 131 to acquire No. 102 from the Kraken, which was used on Spencer Bowes.

Certainly, there were other opportunities to make moves up the board, especially in the middle rounds of the draft. However, the front office showed plenty of patience, taking advantage of a board that fell in their favor.

Rangers played the draft board perfectly exhibiting patience

Jun 26, 2026; Buffalo, New York, USA; Alberts Smits reacts beside NHL commissioner Gary Bettman after being selected with the fifth pick in the first round of the 2026 NHL Draft by the New York Rangers at KeyBank Center. / Timothy T. Ludwig-Imagn Images

It meant not needing to push the issue and be overly aggressive. Why trade away multiple draft picks to move up in the second round, for example, when players you spent months evaluating and scouting are dropping down the board into your range?

New York could have packaged No. 64 with one of its third-round picks to jump into the top half of the second round. Alas, it ended up not being necessary, as they landed the No. 44-ranked player on the big board of Scott Wheeler of The Athletic at No. 64, left-handed defenseman Ben MacBeath.

“We waited patiently because we felt we had a good list,” team director of player personnel and director of amateur scouting John Lilley said, via Vincent Z. Mercogliano of The Athletic (subscription required). “The way teams were going, they were going kind of off the players that we valued.”

Say hello to the 2026 #NYR Draft Class 👋 pic.twitter.com/3zbELwUrwZ

— New York Rangers (@NYRangers) June 28, 2026

Another player that looks to be quite the steal for the Rangers is center Tomas Chrenko. Selected in the third round, No. 81 overall, many draft and ranking outlets had him ranked much higher than that.

Hitting on middle-round picks has been a challenge for New York in recent years. It is a major reason why their pipeline is in the state that it is currently, but Lilley is looking to change that in what was the most important draft of his tenure with the team.

Using as many lottery tickets as possible will increase the odds of them hitting on players who can be useful at the NHL level down the road. Noah Laba, a fourth-round pick in the 2022 NHL Draft, is the only such player currently, but that will hopefully change in the near future.