Covid Hits Ranger's Prospect Hockey Hard

Brody Lamb (Green Bay Gamblers)

When the various schedule makers put together the schedules for their leagues, January 7th 2022 should have seen as many as ten New York Ranger prospects in action. Most had expected Covid to have been a thing of the past but that is proving not to be the case.

Now before anyone gets upset over the headline, there is nothing that indicates or even suggests that any Ranger prospect has Covid. My own experience with the WHL tells me that the teams are going overboard to protect these young men.

The WHL had ten games scheduled for Friday but 15 out of the 20 teams were in Covid protocol so the league chose to postpone all 10 games scheduled. It also did not help that Washington was being battered by a nasty winter storm which alone would have caused at least 2 of the games to have been canceled anway.

The OHL had six games scheduled for Friday but that league has also been hit hard by Covid so only three of those games were played. Only one Ranger prospect Brennan Othmann of the Flint Firebirds was scheduled to play but he didn't for reasons unknown at the time this was written. 

The only thing that can be speculated was it was last minute as Othmann played in the Firebirds game on Thursday and played well. Hopefully it was overdoing his birthday dinner that caused him to miss Friday's game.

At the NCAA level, three Ranger prospects were scheduled and two got to play with only Simon Kjellberg's Renssellaer Engineers seeing their game postponed due to Covid.

And the lone Rangers prospect playing in the USHL Brody Lamb of the Green Bay Gamblers was able to play.

So at the start of the 2021-2022 season there were 15 active New York Ranger prospects in North America. Here is a list of the prospects and their team's status. 

Simon Kjellberg (NCAA) Rensselaer vs Harvard postponed due to Covid protocols

Jayden Grubbe (WHL) Red Deer vs Edmonton postponed due to Covid protocols

Ryder Korczak (WHL) Moose Jaw vs Lethbridge postponed due to Covid protocols

Talyn Boyko (WHL) Kelowna vs Vancouver postponed due to Covid protocols

Dylan Garand (WHL) Kamloops vs Portland postponed due to Covid protocols

Evan Vierling of the Barrie Colts (OHL) and his team are out with Covid until January 13th. The team will return but Vierling will need to sit for two additional games as a result of an OHL suspension for an incident on December 18th, 2021. 

Will Cuylle and his Windsor Spitfires have been out since December 31,2021 (four games) also Covid related but they are scheduled to play Saturday, January 8th, and Sunday, January 9th.

Eric Ciccolini Michigan (NCAA) was injured early in the season and has been ruled out for the season

Riley Hughes Norteastern (NCAA) returned to action on Friday night

Brody Lamb Green Bay (USHL) played on Friday

Hank Kempf Cornell (NCAA) played on Friday against North Dakota in non-conference action

Brett Berard Providence (NCAA) his team is off until January 14th when they play Merrimack

Hugo Ollas Merrimack (NCAA) was scheduled to play Friday but their opponents were unable to play due to Covid. They are going to play Saturday in a non-conference game against Bentley 

Matthew Rempf Seattle (WHL) are ok to play but weather forced their game against Tri-City to be postponed.

Talyn Boyko Kelowna (WHL) team is OK to play but Friday's opponent Vancouver was in Covid protocol and game was postponed. They are scheduled to host Portland on Saturday.

Not going to get into any discussion about what anyone should do because after over two years of this your mind is already made up. But don't expect the Rangers to play against the Ducks tonight as word has it that team has been hit hard by Covid too.

Game Action

Brody Lamb and his Green Bay Gamblers hosted the Chicago Steel in USHL action on Friday night. Lamb continued his hot streak with a goal on four shots but the Gamblers lost to the Steel 5-3.

Ever since Lamb was moved up to the starting line, he has found his scoring touch. After Friday Lamb has four goals in four straight (five in his last six) games. Lamb started the season with just three goals in his first 20 games; he now is up to eight after 26 games. 

Overall Lamb is 8-6-14 as the future Minnesota Golden Gopher is starting to look like a legit prospect. Even better is the Rangers will still own his rights as long as he attends school so no need to rush his development.

Riley Hughes of the 10th-ranked Northeastern Huskies had been out with a lower body injury since Novemeber 7th. He missed a total of eight games during which his team went 6-1-1 without him. 

Hughes was scoreless on three shots as the Huskies shutout Long Island University 1-0. 

Hank Kempf was scoreless as his 14th-ranked Cornell Big Red upset fifth-ranked North Dakota on the road 4-3. The freshman defenseman was credited with one shot as Cornell broke a three game winless streak.