With the NHL Draft less than a month away for the New York Rangers, the team will be seeking to make some improvements for their prospect pool. After missing the playoffs for the last two years, the Rangers are a team that will be focused on improving this summer. New York has been retooling and trying to create some cap space and get younger. While they do have some good things in place, finishing with the third-worst record in hockey is a good indication that there are some notable areas to improve. One of the main focuses for Chris Drury and the front office will be to improve their top six. This is a group that ideally could use probably two more impact players. Whether or not that is realistic is yet to be determined. Furthermore, with a weak free agency class, how they go about it will be a good question as well. While free agency will be important, so will the NHL Draft. The Rangers will have two first-round picks and a chance to add some young talent. Hannah Stuart of Bleacher Report recently released an updated NHL mock draft and had the Rangers making an interesting selection with the 26th pick. In the mock draft, Stuart had New York taking right-winger Mathis Preston, in what would be a surprise based on positional needs. New York Rangers president and general manager Chris Drury / The Journal News-Imagn ImagesWhile help on the right side is a need for New York, with the assumption that they won’t be taking a center with the fifth overall pick, addressing that need with the second of their two selections makes a lot of sense. The Rangers would love to see Caleb Malhotra drop to them at five, but that is becoming increasingly more unlikely. If Malhotra, Ivar Stenberg, and Gavin McKenna are all off the board as expected, they will likely take the best defensive player available. With that being said, defense is a bit of a need for them, but not a pressing one. However, up the middle is an organizational need, and if the team trades Vincent Trocheck, it will only be more of one. While Preston is a good prospect, the Rangers would be much better off going with a center with this pick. It all will depend on what happens for the team at fifth overall, but help up the middle seems like the most logical thing for the team to target with this selection.