Nathan Aspinall might be turning into the steal of the New York Rangers' entire 2024 draft class, and it's not particularly close.
The Rangers took the 6-foot-6 forward in the fifth round, 159th overall, back in 2024. Nobody expected this kind of jump.
The Athletic's 2026 re-draft, overseen by Corey Pronman, now has Aspinall at 34th overall, a leap of 125 spots into early second-round territory.
Only three players in the entire class jumped further than that, which tells you how dramatic Aspinall's rise has actually been.
His 2025-26 season with Flint explains why. Aspinall finished second in the OHL with 94 points, 33 goals and 61 assists, in 65 games as team captain.
That's a massive jump from a player who'd never scored more than 18 goals or topped 47 points in any of his three previous OHL seasons.
FloHockey's Chris Peters projected him for a middle-six role in Hartford to start, calling the breakout "found money" for a fifth-round pick this deep into his development.
Why EJ Emery's season now carries a lot more weight
The Rangers already gave Aspinall a taste of pro hockey, signing him to an amateur tryout for five AHL games at the end of the 2024-25 season.
Not every prospect from that class is trending the same direction. Defenseman EJ Emery, taken 30th overall, dropped 33 spots to 63rd in the same re-draft.
Emery was supposed to be the headline name from this class. Now he's the one who needs a real bounce-back season to reclaim that status.
Cole Beaudoin and Liam Greentree, both acquired by the Rangers in separate trades after being first-round picks elsewhere, held roughly steady in the rankings.
Beaudoin slipped one spot to 25th, and Greentree fell five spots to 31st, both still solidly inside the first-round range.
Aspinall outgrowing his draft slot changes the math on this entire prospect pool, and it puts real pressure on Emery to catch back up.
How this group actually performs in the AHL and at training camp will say a lot more than any re-draft ranking ever could.
Is Nathan Aspinall already the best prospect in the Rangers' 2024 class?
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