Sign in Subscribe
Front Page

Rangers Radar: Rykov finding some offense

Rykov is putting points up in the KHL after a long drought

It’s time for another week of Rangers Radar, where we put the spotlight on trends in performance and production for players on the New York Rangers and the Hartford Wolf Pack, as well as Rangers prospects.

New York Rangers

  • Mika Zibanejad set a franchise record by picking up a point on ten-consecutive goals — he’s also just the ninth player in NHL history to accomplish that feat. Zibanejad eclipsed his previous career high in points for a single season when he picked up two points against the Los Angeles Kings on Feb. 4.
  • Ryan Strome scored as many power play goals (2) in his first 24 games with the Rangers as he scored in the 100 regular season games he played with the Edmonton Oilers. He’s two goals on the man advantage away from matching the career-high he set in 37 games with the Islanders in the 2013-14 season.
  • As of Feb. 5, Tony DeAngelo leads all Rangers defensemen in 5-on-5 primary points (4). In that span of games, five other Rangers d-men had more total ice time at 5-on-5 than DeAngelo and only three of them had two primary points at 5-on-5./
  • Through 49 games this season, Brady Skjei is playing an average of 26 more seconds of 5-on-5 hockey per-game than he played in 2017-18. Skjei has already matched his 5-on-5 primary point total from last season, but will unlikely catch the career-high he set in 2016-17 when he notched 16 primary points at 5-on-5./

Hartford Wolf Pack

  • Hartford has lost eight-straight games — six of which were regulation losses — since Jan. 19. In that span, the Wolf Pack have scored just 17 goals.
  • On Feb. 2, Ville Meskanen put an end to an eight-game goalless drought by scoring the Wolf Pack’s lone goal against the Rochester Americans. Meskanen has the best 5-on-5 Rel GF% (12.6) among Hartford forwards who have played more than 35 games this season. He’s been on the ice for more even strength goals (31) than any other Wolf Pack forward.
  • Chris Bigras picked up an assist on that aforementioned Meskanen goal to stop his point scoring drought from reaching 11 games. He is second among the Wolf Pack’s blueliners in points this season, with three goals and 17 assists in 47 games.
  • John Gilmour is tied for second in the AHL in goals among defensemen. He has 15 goals this season through 47 games. Nine of those goals have been scored at 5-on-5, which ties him for the league lead among blueliners. Last season, Gilmour had six goals in 44 games for the Wolf Pack and scored two goals in 28 games with the Rangers.
  • Lias Andersson has one primary point and 12 shots in his last eight games. He’s been on the ice for 13 5-on-5 goals for and 20 5-on-5 goals against in 30 AHL games this season.
  • Ryan Gropp had his first multi-point game of the season when he notched a goal and an assist against the Bridgeport Sound Tigers on Feb. 5. That goal was just his second in his last 30 games. Gropp is now up to four goals and six assists in 35 games this season. /

Prospects

  • Through 41 games this season, Yegor Rykov has two goals and six assists for HC Sochi. He’s currently averaging 19:26 TOI/GP and has six points in his last 14 games. Prior to this recent stretch, Rykov was struggling to produce with one point — a goal — in 26 games./
  • Nils Lundkvist is averaging 12:30 TOI/GP and 11:12 TOI/GP at even strength with Luleå HF in the SHL this season. The 18-year-old defenseman has three goals and seven assists through 33 games. Lundkvist is seeing some time on Luleå’s power play, but is not playing at all on the penalty kill./
  • Jacob Ragnarsson (70th overall, 2018 Draft) has the worst plus/minus (-14) and the highest PIM (28) on Almtuna IS’s blue line this season. He’s averaging 18:10 TOI/GP through 27 games. Ragnarsson is one of seven defenders under 20 with six or more assists in Allsvenskan this season.
  • Goaltender Tyler Wall (174th overall, 2016 Draft) has posted a .973 Sv% in his last three starts with UMass Lowell. Wall’s .928 Sv% is Top-10 in the nation among underclassmen goalies and is good for second in Hockey East.
  • Morgan Barron (174th overall, 2017 Draft) has been lighting it up in his sophomore season at Cornell. He leads all ECAC skaters in shots (103) and shots per-game (5.5) through his first 21 games this season. He’s also leading Cornell in primary points and power play points. Barron is now up to 24 points in 21 games as a sophomore after picking up 18 points in 33 games as a freshman./

Rangers Radar: Igor Shestyorkin has been a wall for SKA

Data courtesy of shl.se, en.khl.ru, prospect-stats.com, ahltracker.com, theahl.com, hockeyeastonline.com, naturalstattrick.com, Corsica.hockey.

Read next