Ryder Ritchie | 2024 NHL draft prospect profile and analysis
For the 2024 draft, TSLH Prospects offers you exclusive content prepared following numerous prospect viewings. Between now and the NHL Draft, TSLH will be sharing profiles of NHL prospects, as well as its final rankings of the top prospects in the 2024 Draft.
Ryer Ritchie is a fairly unanimous player for the first round of the 2024 draft. In fact, his name often gravitates in the top 32 of public scouting lists. A winger with dual Canadian-Swedish nationality, Ritchie will turn 18 on August 3. He is 6’0 and weighs 174 lbs. Born in Alberta, he played a few years of minor hockey in Sweden before returning to Canada to play in the CSSHL. In his first WHL season with the Prince Albert Raiders, he racked up 55 points in 61 games.
This season, his contribution was quite similar, given that his season was marked by a lower-body injury. During one game, he suffered a hard knee collision, causing him to miss several games on the calendar. In the playoffs, his 7 points in 5 games didn’t really dictate the quality of his play on the ice. We’ll come back to this immediately in his detailed profile below. Note that Ritchie was very good at the Hlinka tournament last summer, and his profile was already quite attractive. That said, the 2023-2024 season will not have propelled Ritchie into the top tier of prospects for the 2024 draft.
Ryder Ritchie: draft profile and analysis
Ryder Ritchie is a player I liked last year, but who has quietly started to slip down on my list. His injury certainly didn’t help. Nor did the fact that he was playing alone in Prince Albert. However, in his overall game, there are still some very « junior » things observed even at the end of the season. He’s a player who shows great coordination between his hands and feet. However, he’s also a player who tends to let himself slide when it comes to making decisions. This takes the surprise out of his feints. He has a lively shot, but as with his puck handling and puck carrying, he’s sometimes not very deceptive in his shot selection. I like how he’ll keep the puck away from him to protect it, but when he’s under a lot of pressure, he’s not able to bring it close to him to protect it properly. I think he has great vision and targets attacking trajectories well.
Defensively, he’s a player who sometimes cheats. In the playoffs, he tended to try to anticipate his coverages, but often failed. When leaving the zone, he occasionally tries to absorb pressure by bringing the disc along the ramp, but ends up losing his battles. The game closes quickly against good teams, and he seems to have trouble breaking through the defensive wall. He’s a player who can get in front of the net, but also likes to be in control of the puck.
Unfortunately, in Prince Albert, the game was quite disjointed regularly during the season and it was difficult for him to get comfortable. Add to that his injury, and I can understand why he fell at the draft. That said, a profile like Ritchie’s is relatively common in the draft. He’s a player who offers an offensive profile, isn’t physical and doesn’t really have any elite qualities that particularly stand out.
2023-2024 statistics
- 47 games played
- 19 goals
- 25 assists
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