Before the lockout, the Rangers were known mostly for one thing: failure. Seven years of playoff futility was highlighted by a stream of aging, high priced veterans, who for the most part failed to perform in the bright spotlight of Broadway.
Four and a half years on, and the Rangers have moved on with three successive post seasons, and seemingly a fourth one on the way. Also gone are the big egos, though not necessarily the big salaries, and for the first time since the early 90s, we see a team that has a large contingent of home grown talent.
No less than 10 of the 26 players within the organization who’ve had NHL experience, have spent their entire career with the Rangers. A further four have played more than half their career in New York.
Eight Rangers draft picks have played for the Rangers this season, lead by the likes of Henrik Lundqvist, Brandon Dubinsky, Ryan Callahan and Marc Staal. Petr Prucha, Nigel Dawes and Lauri Korpikoski all have played supporting roles, while Corey Potter made his NHL debut this season.
Also of interest is the lack of reliance on one team to provide the bulk of the talent to the Rangers. During the 90s it was the Edmonton Oilers who fueled the team, after the lockout it was the Penguins. As of this season, no other NHL team has provided more than two players to the Rangers, though Boston, Buffalo, Calgary, Columbus, Phoenix and Pittsburgh all share that honor.
Another trend that has been broken is Glen Sather‘s penchant for selecting players who’ve played for other teams within the Atlantic division. Eric Lindros, Bobby Holik, Vladimir Malakhov, Jaromir Jagr, Michal Rozsival and Scott Gomez, Martin Straka all came from division rivals…either directly, or having established their careers there. In 2008-09, only four players have experience from Atlantic division teams, prior to joining the Rangers (Gomez – NJD, Valiquette – NYI, Rozsival – PIT and Naslund – PIT).
The trend is expected to continue this year, with the team potentially as much as 38% home grown by the end of the season, a further 5% increase over today’s mark.
2008-09 Rangers
100% Henrik Lundqvist (235 of 235)
100% Petr Prucha (229 of 229)
100% Dan Girardi (164 of 164)
100% Brandon Dubinsky (136 of 136)
100% Marc Staal (128 of 128)
100% Ryan Callahan (114 of 114)
100% Nigel Dawes (107 of 107)
100% Lauri Korpikoski (35 of 35)
100% Corey Potter (2 of 2)
100% Dane Byers (1 of 1)
90% Colton Orr (190 of 211)
89% Blair Betts (270 of 305)
81% Stephen Valiquette (30 of 37)
55% Michal Rozsival (289 of 526)
43% Aaron Voros (41 of 96)
21% Paul Mara (128 of 611)
20% Fredrik Sjostrom (64 of 325)
19% Scott Gomez (122 of 672)
17% Chris Drury (130 of 758)
15% Nikolai Zherdev (48 of 331)
9% Dmitri Kalinin (48 of 514)
7% Dan Fritsche (16 of 222)
5% Wade Redden (47 of 885)
4% Markus Naslund (48 of 1083)
1% Patrick Rissmiller (2 of 182)
0% P.A. Parenteau (0 of 5)