Laba Starts Season with Three Point Game

Noah Laba (Colorado College)

Well hello friends, it has been a while since we last posted so allow me to welcome you to the new home of the Prospect Park for the 2024-2025 season. Please forgive me as this site is undergoing some changes and it might be a while before all the designs fall into place.

Some personal changes for yours truly start with in addition to this site, I am also going to be contributing articles for the Blue Line Station and another site that I hope to share soon. In any case this is going to be a very interesting season for the twelve New York Ranger prospects playing in North America.

For starters there will only be two playing for teams in the Canadian Juniors (Raoul Boilard of the Baie-Comeau Drakkar, and Nathan Aspinall of the Flint Firebirds) although Dylan Roobroeck and Bryce McConnell-Barker are eligible to be returned to the OHL as over-aged players.

The remaining ten prospects are all playing at the NCAA level and really only four can be considered as serious NHL prospects. And it would not be surprising if all four were to have solid seasons that the Rangers try to sign all four. The one who the Rangers badly wanted to sign last spring is the fella on the left Noah Laba of Colorado College.

Laba right now is the top Rangers prospect mainly because he is the best center prospect the Rangers have drafted since they selected Derek Stephan in 2008. Laba is a solid two-way center who does it all, he scores, he creates, he plays on both special team units and he was the defensive player of the year in the NCHC.

Chris Drury tried real hard to get Laba to leave school after his sophomore season but Laba out of loyalty to his college coach stayed as he felt he had unfinished business after Colorado College just missed earning an invite to the NCAA tournament.  Laba was 20-17-37 in 36 games and it is not out of the reach to expect Laba to score at least 30 goals this season.

Saturday evening Laba got his season going with a 1-2-3 night as his 12th-ranked Colorado College Tigers had an easy 8-0 exhibition win over Briercrest (Canada).  Laba got the Tigers going with this very nice effort leading to a goal

Laba would add the primary assists on the Tigers third (power play) and sixth goal of the game. Add a +3 and Laba if he remains healthy is going to be a force.

The only NCAA prospect to play a counting game on Saturday was freshman defenseman Rasmus Larsson who made his debut for the Northern Michigan Wildcats as they lost 4-3 to the Michigan Tech Huskies in non-conference play. Larsson was scoreless on one shot with a +1 but he also took two minor penalties (one that Tech turned into a power play goal).

Larsson was the second pair left defensemen on a rebuilding Wildcats program. It could be a long season for Larsson and that might not be a bad idea as he will experience a lot this way good and bad,

E.J. Emery (North Dakota)

The Rangers 2024 first round draft pick defenseman E.J. Emery made his NCAA debut as his fifth-ranked North Dakota Fighting Hawks dropped a 4-1 exhibition contest to Augustana.

Emery was scoreless on one shot as the scoresheet listed him on the second defensive pair on the left side.

Ty Henricks made his debut as a member of the 15th-ranked Western Michigan Broncos as they defeated the USNTDP squad 4-1 in exhibition play. Henricks was a +1 on two shots with one minor penalty. Henricks is listed aa a 6’5 195 left wing and he is still growing.

Brody Lamb got his junior season underway as his Minnesota Golden Gophers defeated the St’ Cloud Huskies 5-1 in exhibition play. Lamb did not record a single stat and to be brutally honest, Lamb needs to (a) improve his consistency and (b) not have many nights when he does not record a single stat.

When you are a fifth-round draft pick then you need to show how bad you want that NHL contact and Lamb when he wants to is a legit sniper capable of at least a 25 goal season.

In the OHL, Nathan Aspinall was scoreless on one shot with a -1 and a tripping minor as his Flint Firebirds earned a 3-2 overtime win over the Sarnia Sting.  Aspinall was the Rangers fifth-round selection in the 2024 NHL Entry Draft and he is a 6’7 195 left wing.

In the QMJHL,  Raoul Boilard scored his first goal of the season as his Baie-Comeau Drakkar lost 2-1 to the Sherbrooke Phœnix. Boilard tipped a rebound into a wide open net on the power play for the Drakkar’s only goal of the game.  Stats wise it wasn’t a great game as Boilard only had two shots but he was 7-22 on his faceoffs.

JessRubenstein

Covering New York Ranger prospects since 2004, I have covered every Ranger prospect drafted over that time. I was lucky enough to have been trained by former Boston Bruins GM Harry Sinden having completed the NHL GM and Scouting Course taught at Sports Management Worldwide as well as the late EJ McGuire who was the director of the NHL's Central Scouting Bureau and was the former coach of the AHL's Hartford Wolfpack