Rangers select Tobias Rieder 5th Overall

[rangersfan490]

So now that Spott has shown his hand as to what he wants to do with this much contested import pick. I think we all agreed back in the Aleardi trade that (pending Aleardi's play improvement in the next couple years) this may have been a steal for us based solely on this 5th overall pick.

Obviously it is way too early to tell if Rieder will pan out, but I was just wondering what plans did you guys have for this pick. I personally tend to agree with johnnythreetime in that I would have liked to see him package the pick for a top end defenceman. Spott may have been scared off at the prospect of this because:
a) The stud Dman coming our way may stick in the NHL (like DeHaan might) or
b) Miss out on a top European prospect that can have an impact this year.

I really think he was looking at the first overall pick that Prince George picked up with the 6'4 Defenceman. Could have REALLY helped us.

What do you guys think of Spott using his pick? What did you want him to do? He also may trade Rieder to a team later on for a D-man, but as things stand now, we are sorely lacking on the back end, a problem we haven't had for years.

EDIT: Really wanted to see Spott use the pick on Denmark's Nicklas Jensen. He's already committed to the OHL and is ranked higher on the 2011 Draft list. Oshawa picked him up, wonder why the Rangers left him there. Maybe he already had a team picked out and refused Kitchener and it was Oshawa or Oshawa's holding him for ransom. Nevertheless Jensen would have been nice.

[jonny three time]

I'm split on this one. As you mentioned I wanted to see Spott turn that pick into a D-man by way of trade, or maybe end up drafting one. Instead he stock-piled on what we already have a lot of.

The good part though is that the kid sounds really good. He's young enough and small enough to likely get 2, maybe the full 3 years out of, but he's not overly small either so it shouldn't really hold him back at this level. He did pretty well as a 16 yr old playing in the German men's league last year (it looks like he split the year between junior and mens). He's a speedy, lefty, scoring winger which is the one type of top-6 that we don't really have. Regardless of what I originally wanted with the pick, I'm looking forward to see what Rieder can do.

[Cyclone Taylor]

Regardless of what he brings or what other players that the Rangers could've picked we gotta sign him!
I'm not against drafting towards our strengths since the Import players can be a wild card.
Lets see him play then make trades accordingly.
Or perhaps Spott has a hunch that a highly regarded draft pick defenceman (Mayfield) may be coming therefore went to a forward?

[DB]

There's absolutely no doubt Spott is going to do something to address the defence. But with this pick, he said that there were no D availabe at #5 that held a candle to the forwards available. So you take the BPA and then worry about the D later. I'm a bit surprised with Rieder over Jensen, but it means either Jensen had a deal in place with Oshawa since he wanted GTA or Spott legitimately was higher on Rieder. Time will tell.

But expect deals to fall. Spott has something up his sleeve. This team has too many OHL-calibre bodies on the roster.

[HockeyAddict]

I'm liking this pick. Now that we have more then enough forwards, we will see some of our youth upfront get dealt for a high end D manand hopefully a big, physical forward. I am very excited to see what Rieder can do. Many are forgetting that we still had/have a big gap upfront to fill (C-Mac). So we now have 3 potential 1st round NHL draft picks next season, providing we sign RiederN which I'm sure we will.

[Cyclone Taylor]

There's a you-tube clip in The Record of Rieder scoring a goal (Forsberg move) during a shoot-out,

http://news.therecord.com/Sports/article/737423


and here's another one (he's wearing No. 22 and has his first name "Tobi" on his back).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yqf0Vp4ijXA

[Harv]

Unless the season starts tomorrow, the time to worry isnt yet.
The german pick is not upsetting to me, in fact he sounds like a star in the making.

Picking up a dynamite defenseman is very hard to do in the Euro draft. Sounds like the only true available talent was drafted first overall.

There will be alot of shuffling before the end of September. Remember we dont just need a defenseman or two but we need to find some solid two way forwards too.

[ronbholmes]

I like this pick. I wanted Spott to use the pick all a long. Many teams in the O don't have the good fortune Kitchener has with their imports, hence many teams don't attach enough value to an import pick to make a trade worth while for Kitchener. I don't think there would have been any star players up for grabs in exchange for this pick because most teams can't turn their import picks into a Boedker, Weber, Valibic, or Landeskog.

Spott did the right thing here IMO.

[BrantfordRanger]

Let me get this straight.

We're bringing a top ranked '93 born German player to the city with the largest Oktoberfest celebration outside of Germany?

Vas ist Deutsch fur "Match Made in Heaven" ?

[ORYX]

I dont see why this guy wouldnt want to come here.

Kitchener has such strong German roots as well as a great history of developing European players into NHL'ers.

This team has great depth upfront to make a trade for a veteran d-man or two. IMO Spott might make minor tweaks between now and the beginning of the season and see what he really has. For all we know Jasper and Stevens may come back as a wicked shut down pairing, Ryan Murphy will be that much better, Moore (if he is back, likely not) will be that much better as well.

Adding a Dehaan doesnt help us IMO, what we need is Dalton Prout. A big shut down guy that lays out the body to anchor the defense.

[Kenny the Rat]

Great pick by Spotter. I have all the confidence in Spott and the scouts when they make a decision on players. If Spott says this guy was an elite player I take it to the bank.

[Cyclone Taylor]

Here's hoping that the Rangers did their homework and he's not signed to a contract he can't get out of.
I would hope with all the lead time that they had that this wouldn't be an issue.

[ORYX]

Just did a little digging and found that Rieder is in fact signed next year through his German club team Landshut Cannibals and is on loan to (As of May5th) ERC Ingolstadt of the German Elite League.

He is regarded as the best German prospect for next years NHL draft and had a great World Juniors considering he is only 17. 5GP, 4G, 2A, 6P

Im not too sure whether or not he can get out of this contract or not....Hopefully Spott and Co. know.

http://www.eliteprospects.com/player.php?player=34851

[Medway Bear]

He is regarded as the best German prospect for next years NHL draft and had a great World Juniors considering he is only 17. 5GP, 4G, 2A, 6P

Germany were in Division 1 (aka B Pool) this year for the world juniors. These are good stats for a 17 year old, but he wasn't playing against the likes of Canada and the US.

[HockeyAddict]

http://news.therecord.com/Sports/article/737423

Rieder is 70% sure, or maybe a bit more, that he will be coming to Kitchener next season!