Who says you can’t win a Stanley Cup in the late rounds of the NHL Entry Draft?
The Rangers have done it. Well, that needs some explaining. In the later rounds, the Rangers drafted a player (Tony Granato, sixth round, 120 overall, 1982) they packaged for another player (Bernie Nicholls), whom they later traded with, among others, Louie DeBrusk (third round, 49th overall, 1989) for Mark Messier, for example.
They traded Tony Amonte (fourth round, 68th overall, 1988) for two forwards, one of whom now lives in Rangers lore – Stephane Matteau.
And they had two late-round steals in 1990 (Sergei Zubov, fifth round, 85 overall and Sergei Nemchinov, 12th round, 244th overall) who became key parts of their 1994 team. They also became two of the first four Russians to get their names on the Cup (with Alex Kovalev and Alexander Karpovtsev).
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Little known fact: The Rangers drafted a kid in 1987, with the 69th pick, in the fourth round, named Mike Sullivan, who later became the team’s assistant coach and has won the last two Stanley Cups as the head coach of the Pittsburgh Penguins.
And they once selected Kim Johnsson in the 11th round, 286th overall – the last pick made in the 1994 draft – a good enough player to play 739 NHL games. The Rangers traded him in a package for Eric Lindros.
Here are the Top-5 late draft picks (third round or later) in Rangers history:
