Five New York Rangers prospects got into games in Europe this past week, and the biggest jump belonged to Tomáš Chrenko, who is starting to find his footing in Slovakia.
Chrenko, the Rangers’ 2026 third-round pick, played three times for HK Nitra and helped fuel a week that may have changed the mood around the club. Nitra had stumbled badly early on, losing 80 percent of its games across multiple competitions, but it has now won four straight. That run included a notable 5-1 win over Rögle BK of Sweden in the Champions Hockey League.
In that victory, the 18-year-old forward was all over the ice. He played nearly 20 minutes, fired three shots on goal, scored into an empty net and added an assist for his first multi-point game of the season. His first point came late in the second period, when he dropped the puck back to Dmytro Timashov, who then set up Tomáš Hrnka.
Nitra carried that momentum into the Slovak Extraliga, where it beat HC Presov 4-3 in overtime and then shut out Slovan Bratislava 4-0. Chrenko picked up his fifth assist of the season in league play against Slovan. Even with the surge, Nitra is still 10th in the 12-team league, though the gap has tightened - now one point back of HK Dukla Michalovce and three behind HC Banská Bystrica.
The club has two games on the schedule this week, visiting HC Kosice on Friday at 12:00 PM and HK Propad on Saturday at 1:00 PM.
Ivan Patrikhayev also had a strong week in Russia, where the 20-year-old defenseman returned to CSKA Moscow’s lineup and saw his minutes tick up. The Rangers’ seventh-round pick from this year skated on the third pair as CSKA pushed its winning streak to six with victories over Dynamo Moscow, 1-0, and Nefthekhimik Nizhnekamsk, 4-1.
Patrikhayev’s contribution came in the second win, when he assisted on the final goal, scored by former NHL forward Denis Gurianov. That was his second assist in nine games this season.
In Sweden, Mikkel Eriksen kept building on his return to Färjestad BK. The Norwegian center, who had spent time on loan with Mora IK, has now become a regular in the SHL lineup.
After netting his first career SHL goal two weeks ago, the Rangers’ 2025 fourth-round pick scored again Saturday in a 4-2 win over Linköping. Across two games, he averaged 12:56 of ice time and put two shots on goal.
Rico Gredig logged one game last week for EV Zug, and he made the most of it in a 2-1 win over HC Ajoie. The 21-year-old Swiss winger, drafted in the sixth round in 2024, played 11:12 and recorded three shots on goal. Gredig is in his third full season in the National League, Switzerland’s top division, and after moving this summer from HC Davos to EV Zug, he now has three assists in eight games.
Samuel Jung remained with KalPa’s under-20 team in Finland and appeared in their lone game of the week, a 2-0 loss to JYP Jyväskylä. Jung, who was born in Poland and has Czech nationality, has had a difficult start to the season after recovering from a concussion and is still working toward a return to KalPa’s senior lineup.
Back in Sweden, Rasmus Larsson added his second goal of the season as Hudiksvalls HC rolled through a huge weekend. The 2023 fifth-round pick had four shots on goal, and one of them ended up in the net during Saturday’s 15-1 win. Hudiksvalls won both of its games this past weekend by a combined 22-3.
Each of the five prospects is set for more action this week, with Chrenko, Patrikhayev, Eriksen, Gredig, Jung and Larsson all back on the schedule in their respective leagues.
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