In some corners, the 2005 NHL Draft is seen as the time the New York Rangers didn’t get the chance to select Sidney Crosby. But that unique draft did land them one of the best defensemen in franchise history, Marc Staal, who retired Thursday to join the Rangers as a player development assistant.
That draft followed a lockout that cancelled the entire 2004-05 season. After the 10-month lockout ended, the League pieced together the 2005 draft within eight days. A lottery was held to decide draft order for all 30 teams at the time. The Rangers were on of four teams with a weighted favor to land the No. 1 overall pick, which ended up being Crosby.
Not only did the Rangers not select first — the Pittsburgh Penguins did, of course — they fell all the way to No. 16 overall in the lottery. They did, however, swing a deal with the Atlanta Thrashers to move up to the No. 12 pick, where the selected Staal, one slot after the Los Angeles Kings nabbed Anze Kopitar.
Entering the draft, Staal was ranked ninth overall and third among defenseman on the final central scouting rankings and safe to say the pick worked out. Before retiring Thursday, Staal played 17 seasons and 1,136 regular-season games in the NHL.
Staal is currently seventh in games played from the 2005 draft class and was a steady presence for 892 games with the Rangers, especially early in his career. It’s safe to say Staal is their second best first-rounder of the salary cap era, behind Chris Kreider in 2009.
After making his debut in 2007, Staal missed seven games in his first four seasons and was rewarded with a five-year, $19.875 million contract in Sept. 2010, and named alternate captain.
Injuries took their toll soon after, though. Staal sustained a crippling concussion after a hit late in the 2010-11 season from his own brother, Eric, of the Carolina Hurricanes. Then he took a deflected puck in the eye against the Philadelphia Flyers in March of 2013 and actually played without vision in that eye.
His impressive durability and solid defensive play in the top-four continued, though. Staal missed only 35 games over his final six seasons with the Rangers, before he was traded to the Detroit Red Wings following the 2019-20 season.
During his tenure on Broadway, the Rangers reached the Eastern Conference Final three times (2012, 2014, 2015) and the Stanley Cup Final once, losing in fives to the Kings in 2014. He also played a big role on the 2014-15 Presidents’ Trophy winners.
His 892 regular-season games played are sixth most in Rangers history, fourth among defensemen, behind only Harry Howell (1,160), Brian Leetch (1,129) and Ron Greschner (981). Staal is third among skaters in Rangers history, playing 107 postseason games.
Marc Staal stands out in Rangers mixed history with 1st-round draft picks
Staal was drafted at a time at a time when the Rangers consistently swung and missed with their first-round selections. That infamous group included Al Montoya in 2004, Hugh Jessiman in 2003 and Dan Blackburn in 2001, along with Pavel Brendl and Jamie Lundmark in 1999.
Outside of Staal, that Rangers’ draft class of 2005 was nothing special. However, part of that is because their second-round pick, Michael Sauer, sustained a career-ending concussion on Dec. 5, 2011, when the rugged defenseman was crushed by a Dion Phaneuf check.
Like Staal, Sauer looked to be a mainstay on the Rangers blue line before that injury.
Other than Staal and Sauer, the 2005 draft was a rough one for the Rangers, coming off seven straight non-playoff seasons, though two of the picks were used in notable trades.
Tom Pyatt played 445 games in the NHL after being picked in the fourth round but none were with the Rangers. They included the forward in the 2009 deal that sent Scott Gomez to the Montreal Canadiens for future captain Ryan McDonagh, among others. Marc-Andre Cliché played 151 games in the NHL after the Rangers included the former second-round pick in a Feb. 2007 trade with the Kings for agitating forward Sean Avery
Staal, though, was clearly the jewel of that 2005 draft class.
In the salary cap era, Kreider is the gold standard for Rangers first-round picks, beating out Staal for that distinction. The Rangers did land forward J.T. Miller in 2011 and defenseman Brady Skjei in 2012. But they missed badly with Bobby Sanguinetti in 2006, Dylan McIlrath in 2010, Lias Andersson in 2017 and Vitali Kravtsov in 2018.
As for recent first-rounders, Kaapo Kakko is still a regular when healthy, but the 2019 first-round pick is entering a make-or-break season after failing to garner anything but a third-line role in New York.
Alexis Lafreniere was not quite as underwhelming as Kakko in his first three seasons but left the Rangers hoping for more after making him the No. 1 overall pick in 2020. Lafreniere broke out with NHL career highs of 28 goals and 57 points last season and is considered a star on the rise at the age of 22.
Since Lafreniere, the Rangers used their first-round picks on promising forwards Brennan Othmann in 2021 and Gabe Perreault in 2023, and defenseman EJ Emery in June. Each is among the top NHL players and prospects under the age of 23, per a recent breakdown by The Athletic.
So, perhaps one day Staal gets passed by Lafreniere or one of the young stud prospects. But on this day of his retirement, the steady defenseman goes down as a success story and one of the Rangers’ best first-round picks of the salary cap era.
