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Rangers Radar: Howden breaks the drought

The latest installment of our weekly round-up of stats, trends, and notes about Rangers players and prospects

It’s time for another installment of Blueshirt Banter’s Rangers Radar, where we put the spotlight on trends in performance and production and collect notes on players on the New York Rangers and the Hartford Wolf Pack, as well as Rangers prospects playing elsewhere.

New York Rangers

  • Center Brett Howden (27th overall, 2016 Draft) snapped an epic goal-scoring drought on March 11. Before his goal against the Edmonton Oilers on Monday night, Howden had played in 35-consecutive games without scoring a goal. It’s also worth noting that the rookie has six assists in his last 37 games with the Rangers./
  • Brendan Lemieux had a Gordie Howe Hat Trick against the Oilers on Monday night. Lemieux is now one of 11 skaters in the league with five or more fighting majors this season. He’s also one of seven skaters to earn a Gordie Howe Hat Trick this year.
  • The Rangers have had seven fighting majors since Cody McLeod was traded to the Nashville Predators. The Rangers and the Boston Bruins lead the league in team fighting majors with 22. The Rangers had 18 fighting majors in the 2017-18 season.
  • Winger Pavel Buchnevich has 14 points in the 21 games he has played since the All-Star break. The Russian winger had 15 points in the 32 games he played before the All-Star break. Buchnevich set a new single-season best when he scored his 15th goal of the season last night against the Vancouver Canucks.
  • On March 9 against the New Jersey Devils, Ryan Strome earned his first three-point game since March 2, 2017. Strome now has 13 points in his last 16 games. He’s scored 12 goals in 51 games with the Rangers this season. Last season, Strome scored 13 goals in 82 games with the Oilers.
  • Ryan Strome’s 19.67 shooting percentage since Nov. 16 — which is the date of his Rangers debut — is the 10th-highest shooting percentage in the league (all situations) among skaters who have played at least 700 minutes.
  • Defenseman Neal Pionk has one point in his last 20 games. Pionk had 15 points in his first 24 games this season./

Hartford Wolf Pack

  • Forward Vinni Lettieri (undrafted) picked up a hat trick in Hartford’s 5-3 loss against the Hershey Bears on March 10. It was the first hat trick of Lettieri’s professional career and his first multi-goal game sine Jan. 18. Lettieri now leads the Wolf Pack’s active roster in goals, power play goals, and shots.
  • Goaltender Adam Huska (184th overall, 2015 Draft) allowed five goals in his AHL debut against the Bears. Huska faced 30 shots in the game from an offense that is ranked fifth from the bottom in total goals for this season. Two of the five goals that got past the Slovakian goaltender came on the Bears’ power play.
  • Ville Meskanen (undrafted) has one goal and three assists in his last 20 games with the Wolf Pack. The Finnish winger has not picked up a point since Peter Holland was traded on Feb. 19.
  • Rookie defenseman Sean Day (81st overall, 2016 Draft) notched two primary assists in Hartford’s 3-2 shootout win over the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins on March 8. Day now has seven points in his last 11 games. He was scoreless in his first 14 games in the AHL this season.
  • Rookie defenseman Ryan Lindgren (49th overall, 2016 Draft), who has been wearing an “A” on his sweater recently, leads the Wolf Pack in penalty minutes by a wide margin. Lindgren has 86 PIM this year. He’s earned four fighting majors and 23 minor penalties which makes him the second most-penalized Hartford defenseman behind Rob O’Gara (28 minor penalties)./
  • John Gilmour (198th overall, 2013 Draft) is now up to 20 goals in 64 games after his two-goal performance — which included an overtime winner — against the Binghamton Devils on March 13. Gilmour leads all AHL defensemen in scoring with 51 points. He’s put up 11 points in his last five games./

Other Rangers Prospects

  • Defenseman Nico Gross (101st overall, 2018 Draft) has eclipsed his point total from last season with the 17 points he’s picked up in 53 games this season with the Oshawa Generals. However, Gross had 12 primary points in 58 games last year and only eight of his points this season have been primary.
  • Tyler Wall (174th overall, 2016 Draft) has posted a .922 save percentage thus far in his junior season at UMass-Lowell. Wall and the River Hawks will meet Boston University in the Hockey East Quarterfinals this Friday at 7:15 p.m. ET./
  • Goaltender Olof Lindbom (39th overall, 2018 Draft) had a 27-save performance for Djurgårdens IF’s J20 SuperElit team on March 6. Lindbom missed a large portion of the 2018-19 season with a concussion. An article in Hockeymagisnet reported that Lindbom rested for 11 weeks after his concussion, which occurred early this season. He has a .908 save percentage in 300 minutes of SuperElit hockey this season.
  • K’Andre Miller (22nd overall, 2018 Draft) is a finalist for the Big 10 Hockey Freshman of the Year. Miller finished fifth on the Badgers in scoring this season despite missing 11 games this season with a lower-body injury and the 2019 World Juniors./
  • Patrik Virta (207th overall, 2017 Draft) has 15 points — nine of which are even strength points — in 35 games this season with Örebro HK in the SHL. Virta began the season in the KHL with HC Slovan Bratislava where he had two goals and seven assists in 21 games. Virta and Örebro play their final regular season game today against Malmö. He turned 23 on March 6./

Data courtesy of ahltracker.com, theahl.com, hosted.stats.com/nhl, hockeyfights.com, prospect-stats.com, hockeyeastonline.com, and stats.swehockey.se.

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