After 21 years as a member of the Rangers European Scouting team, Director of player personnel for Europe, Christopher Rockstrom has been let go by the organization. The man who scouted star goalie Henrik Lundqvist is gone. Could this be signaling a trend in the organization against picking European players?
In this year's draft in Los Angeles, the Rangers selected one European player. With their sixth round pick, the Rangers selected Jesper Fasth, of Sweden.
In 2009, the Rangers selected two European players—Czech forward Roman Horak in the fifth round, and Russian forward Mikhail Pashnin in the seventh round. Horak spent this past season in the CHL, and Pashnin remained in Russia.
In 2008, the Rangers had two picks in the third round. Both were used on European players. Forward Evgeny Grachev and defenseman Tomas Kundratek both joined the Rangers organization with relatively early picks. However, both players would come to play in the CHL the following season.
We all remember the Rangers first round pick in 2007, the late Alexei Cherepanov. A player who nobody expected to fall to the Rangers at pick No. 17 ...
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Article written by Jason Klau
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July 27th, 2010 by Jason Klau Leave a reply »
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