Matthew Robertson appears to be the real forgotten prospect for the New York Rangers. Robertson was drafted six years ago in the second round of the 2019 draft and signed his entry-level contract just four months later. Robertson was clearly a guy the Rangers draft office loved and went from highly touted to afterthought in the short span of four years following his draft year. An injury, some chaos with the Hartford Wolf Pack, and minimal improvements in his play all contributed, and “by default” he ended up staying with the Rangers.
Maybe “standard” is too harsh, considering he beat Connor Mackey, Scott Morrow and others in camp. But it was also clear that the Rangers did not want to lose him to waivers, a stubbornness that was misplaced with previous possible waiver victim Libor Hajek. Yet Matthew Robertson gets that treatment, and he has the advantage of playing in a system that better suits his skillset.
Robertson has only skated one match so far, and even though it’s only one match, he’s been quite impressive. 6:07 PM Getting TOI against Washingtonthe Rangers had a 21-10 shot share advantage (67.74%), a 0.78-0.43 xG advantage (64.21%) and a 3-1 high danger chance advantage (75%) with Matthew Robertson on the ice. Those are great numbers and definitely worth keeping in the lineup over Mackey, who was recalled due to Carson Soucy’s injury.
It’s pretty clear that Soucy has a concussion and will be out indefinitely. Concussions are always tricky, and hopefully teams are being cautious when it comes to returning to the ice. That could mean that Soucy is absent for a while, or that he is absent for a week or two. Either way, Matthew Robertson has shown he should get an extended look now that Soucy is gone, and perhaps longer.
No disrespect to Connor Mackey. He’s a known entity and a good enough 8D on the Rangers. While Matthew Robertson isn’t really considered a prospect anymore, the Rangers have the luxury of seeing what they have in the 24-year-old defenseman. He was initially expected to be a second pair defender as his ceiling, but he is unlikely to achieve that goal. But for Robertson, the bar is simply better than Soucy or Urho Veelanainen.
Funnily enough, Veelanainen has quite solid possession figures through four games, with an equally impressive shot share (57.60%), xG share (60.16%) and a high danger chance share (63.64%) on the third pair. One of those games overlaps with Robertson’s season debut on Sunday. Soucy is well below 50% across the board, while his shot share and high danger opportunity shares are near or below 40%. He struggled, but it was only two and a half games for him.
It wouldn’t be the surprise of the century to have a third pairing of Matthew Robertson and Urho Veelanainen, but it’s certainly not something that many people had on their preseason lineup cards. The difference between Robertson and Soucy is that Robertson is a better skater and puck mover. Soucy has his strengths in defending zone plays, but unless he improves other parts of his game, Robertson could steal that spot from him sooner or later.
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