One of the goals the New York Rangers had heading into the offseason was to infuse some youth into the franchise.
The organizational pipeline is lacking high-end young talent. The Rangers have had real challenges developing young players they draft, and it is having a major impact on the NHL team, which is currently stuck in a bit of limbo.
In the most recent top 100 prospect rankings, New York had only three players make the cut and two who just missed. One of them is defenseman Alberts Smits, the No. 5 pick in the 2026 NHL Draft.
Recently, the list of the top goalie prospects was also done by Scott Wheeler of The Athletic (subscription required). The Rangers weren’t featured on that list either, with Dylan Garand being one of the last cuts.
“Among the final cuts were diminutive Blue Jackets prospect Sergei Ivanov (the last cut), 24-year-olds Dylan Garand and Dennis Hildeby (both trying to take that next step from being No. 3s to No. 2s with the Rangers and Lightning, respectively),” he wrote.
Garand will be competing with veteran Joonas Korpisalo for the No. 2 role behind Igor Shesterkin. He will reportedly be given every chance to win the job, but he is certainly facing an uphill battle.
The Rangers traded away a lower-level prospect in Kalle Vaisanen and a fourth-round pick in the 2028 NHL Draft to bring Korpisalo over from the Boston Bruins. Their long-time rivals must have been thrilled at that offer, getting a mid-round pick and shedding all that salary.
Taking on the $3 million that Korpisalo is making was a head-scratching move by Chris Drury. There were other veteran goalies available in free agency that would not have required parting ways with a draft pick and would have cost a fraction of the price, salary-wise.
Drury prefers having a veteran backup goalie, but adding Korpisalo is certainly a risky move. Because if he earns the job and Garand is relegated to No. 3 duties, he is no longer waiver-exempt.
Should the Rangers try to send him back to the Hartford Wolf Pack, another organization could scoop him up on waivers. That would be a worst-case scenario for the franchise because Garand is a solid prospect and someone who could develop into an NHL starter behind Shesterkin.
Garand made his NHL debut this past season and did well in three starts. He had a 2-0-1 record with a .948 save percentage and a 1.62 goals-against average. With Hartford, he was 16-15-2, a strong record considering the performance of the team as a whole, with a 2.83 goals-against average and .896 save percentage.
