I think it's safe to say that over the past decade and a half the Rangers draft success with their first round picks has been pretty bad [that's putting it nicely]. Here are the New York Rangers first round picks in each NHL Entry Draft since the 1994 Draft. Especially the disaster in 2003, one of the most talented draft classes in recent years and the Rangers managed to select Hugh Jessiman. The picks after 2004 can hopefully continue to show progress.
Below are the picks that were made and players that the Rangers passed on who were later selected in the first round. I only listed the players who were passed on before 2005, becaus! e it's too early to make determinations on those draft years just yet.
1994 #26 Overall - Dan Cloutier [G]
1996 #22 Overall - Jeff Brown [D] passed on Daniel Briere
1997 #19 Overall - Stefan Cherneski [RW] passed on Brenden Morrow
1998 #7 Overall - Manny Malhotra [C] passed on Scott Gomez, Simon Gagne, Alex Tanguay & Nik Antropov
1999 #4 Overall - Pavel Brendl [RW] passed on Tim Connolly, Martin Havlat & Nick Boynton
1999 #9 Overall - Jamie Lundmark [C] passed on Martin Havlat & Nick Boynton
2001 #10 Overall - Dan Blackburn [G] passed on Ales Hemsky & R.J. Umberger
2003 #12 Overall - Hugh Jessiman [RW] passed on Patrick Eaves, Mike Richards, Ryan Kesler, Dustin Brown, Brent Seabrook, Steve Bernier, Zach Parise, Brent Burns & Ryan Getzlef
2004 #6 Overall - Al Montoya [G] passed on Mike Green, Andrej Meszaros, Travis Zajac & Alexander Radulov
2! 004 #19 Overall - Lauri Korpikoski [LW]
2005 #12 Ov! erall - Marc Staal [D]
2006 #21 Overall - Bob Sanguinetti [D]
2007 #17 Overall - Alexei Cherepanov RIP [RW]
2008 #20 Overall - Michael Del Zotto [D]
