Editor’s note: For the second consecutive year, The Athletic’s Vincent Z. Mercogliano and Peter Baugh are doing a series ranking the New York Rangers’ top 10 prospects. The order is based on detailed analysis of the organizational pipeline, along with conversations with evaluators, coaches and many of the players. The aim is to balance where each prospect is on his development path while weighing projected upside over time. Only prospects who maintain rookie eligibility and are yet to reach their second contract are included, bumping previously ranked players such as Noah Laba, Scott Morrow and last year’s No. 1 Gabe Perreault out of consideration. Each of the top 10 will be profiled in a series of stories that began Monday and concludes Sept. 4.No. 10: Adam SýkoraIn April 2025, Drew Fortescue walked into Madison Square Garden as a spectator, there to support Boston College teammate Gabe Perreault, then the Rangers’ top prospect suiting up to make his NHL debut. He and a group of Eagles players gathered along the boards for pregame warmups and cheered as Perreault skated around the ice for his solo rookie lap.Almost exactly a year later, the 6-foot-2 defenseman was back at the Manhattan arena, this time on the other side of the glass. He’d shown enough during his third college season to turn professional, and the Rangers were ready to get a look at their 2023 third-round pick.“You want them to go (pro) when they’re ready,” Boston College coach Greg Brown said. “(Fortescue) wasn’t the biggest kid physically, so he put his time in to build his strength. Now he’s got his body to a place that he can compete with men.”Fortescue skated 17:23 in his debut March 27, collecting his first NHL assist and earning praise from coach Mike Sullivan, who said “he had a high panic threshold” and defended well.“There’s a lot to like about Drew’s game,” Sullivan added.Can Gabe Perreault get to Nikita Kucherov’s level?Scott Wheeler, Corey Pronman and moreOn top of 35 games at Boston College, for whom he had four goals and a college career-high 14 points, Fortescue played nine NHL games in 2025-26, averaging 14:51 per night and finishing with two assists. Sullivan played him primarily against opponents’ weaker offensive players, but Fortescue didn’t look out of place in those minutes.The 21-year-old left shot, whose ceiling is likely a No. 4-6 defenseman on an NHL roster, checks in at No. 9 in our Rangers prospect rankings.