Here we are not even at the end of March and already the majority of the Rangers prospects are finished for the season. A large part of the reason why is because the Rangers only have 11 active prospects playing in North America.
Of the 11 active prospects only two are playing Major Junior hockey in Canada. The other nine prospects played NCAA hockey and because this was a down year there are fewer playing in the playoff or in the NCAA tournament.
What you also see is the aftereffects of trading away five draft picks (2024 draft -second and third, 2023 draft- second and fourth) in the last two NHL Entry Drafts. Now since only 16 teams are invited to play in the NCAA tournament then space is limited.
Thursday saw two of the five in action both playing in the Fargo North Dakota regional.
It started with the region’s number one seed Ty Henricks and his Western Michigan Broncos facing Minnesota State in the opener. Henricks was not a factor as he was in his normal fourth line left wing spot as his Broncos needed double overtime before finding a way to survive Minnesota State 2-1 to advance to the regional final on Saturday.
This was a battle of one of the leading offenses (Western Michigan) going up against the number one goalie in the NCAA this year Alex Tracy. Give Tracy all the credit in the world as he stopped 42 out of the 44 shots he faced in 87:14.
The best way to describe Tracy’s performance is what would happen if you took Igor Shestyerkin and Henrik Lundqvist and combined them. Someone is going to show up with a checkbook to sign Tracy as he was that good (hint Chris Drury).
Henricks was credited with just two shots for the game but to the credit of the Broncos as they kept rolling out four lines for most of the first overtime. Henrick’s time will come and if he remains on the current path, the Rangers will have a solid power forward.
Henricks and company are advancing to Saturday’s final against UMass-Amherst after they upset Brody Lamb and his Minnesota Golden Gophers 5-4 in overtime. Lamb played well as he scored his 17th goal of the season in a losing effort, and he played a good not great overall game.
What there was to like about Lamb was even though he started the game as the third line’s right wing by the overtime period, Lamb was moved up to center a line especially in the overtime session.
His goal was a thing of beauty as in the second period while Lamb was taking a faceoff, he won said faceoff, got the puck on his stick and fired a wrist shot that beat the UMass goalie for at the time was a 2-1 lead.
Watch Lamb knock the water bottle off the net as that is where the puck hit.
Poppin' bottles off the faceoff! 🍾 @brodylamb2 #NCAAHockey x 🎥 ESPN2 / @GopherHockey pic.twitter.com/ANWgHjkkU0
— NCAA Ice Hockey (@NCAAIceHockey) March 28, 2025
And yes, Minnesota fans you have every reason to be angry at bad officiating as twice you had players hauled down with no calls. The second one in overtime was horrible but Minnesota was so busy arguing the non-call that they got caught off-guard as UMass carried the puck in to score the game-winner.
But Minnesota was also guilty of poor defense too as they let a two-goal lead escape in the third period. It was part of a horror story of a day for the Big Ten conference as all three of the Big Ten teams lost.
As for Lamb, he finished off his season 17-9-26 which normally are the kind of numbers that start a “Sign him now” chant here except for one huge issue. Lamb scored 13 goals in his first 20 games then went 11 games without a goal.
Lamb would then score three goals in two games but then went five more games without a point before the goal last night. Sorry, those 16 games without a goal are the number one reason Brody Lamb needs to come back and play his senior season.
Reason number two is that Lamb spent most of the season as a third line player and that two is not a good sign for an NHL player. There is little doubt that as a goal scoring machine, Lamb is needed by the Rangers.
Come back next year, work on your consistency, work on your skills as a center (he is mainly a right wing by trade), and don’t go 16 games without any goals to earn yourself an NHL entry level contract.
One last thing for you to think about: Two prospects (Jackson Dorrington and Noah Laba) have been signed to NHL Entry Level deals. But other than Gabe Perreault none of the others deserve a contract.
The hope is that next year there will be serious improvement among these prospects so others will earn contracts. Not having those five traded away draft picks means five fewer prospects to add to the pipeline.
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