Rangers hopeful Ty Ronning is a second-generation story of grit
The similarities are striking.
Both were seventh-round draft picks. Both measured in shy of 5-foot-10. And as much as defensemen have tried to chase them down the ice, those defensemen were often left seeing only the “Ronning” on the back of both their jerseys.
Cliff Ronning made a career of it for 17 seasons in the NHL. Now his son, Rangers prospect Ty Ronning, is ready to begin charting his own path through the league.
“His journey is different than mine and that’s the beauty of this,” Cliff said recently. “The word is exciting, because I know, with dedication, where he’ll be one day. That’s what he’s always wanted to do. It’s been his dream.”
The dream is now closer to reality than it’s ever been.
The kid who grew up in locker rooms across the NHL, watching the the tail end of his dad’s career and learning to rollerblade before he could walk, signed his first pro contract in March and will head to training camp in the fall trying to earn a spot on the Rangers.
“Everybody’s going to be competing for a spot. Hell, I want to make the Rangers, for sure I do. But so do they,” the 20-year-old right winger said last week at the team’s prospect development camp, where he continued to stand out. “So for me, it’s coming down to working my butt off and never quitting.”
That attitude has served him well so far.
Ty was drafted 201st overall in 2016 as a 5-foot-9, 165-pound 18-year-old. He had been a solid scorer for the Western Hockey League’s Vancouver Giants, but nothing compared to what he did with them last year: In 70 games, he racked up 61 goals and 23 assists, breaking the club’s single-season goals record of 48, formerly held by Sharks winger Evander Kane.
Before their season even ended, Ty had shown enough to sign an entry-level contract with the Rangers.
“The smaller players, they have to have one of their assets of the game be over-average,” Rangers director of player personnel Gordie Clark said. “This past season, he developed that one skill that stood out. That was his goal-scoring ability, which wasn’t a bunch of empty netters. The amount of goals to tie a game or to win a game was key.”
In addition to making a concerted effort to shoot the puck more, Ty also worked to put on good weight that would help him to hold his own, without affecting his speed. Weighing in at 183 pounds last week, he said he was feeling fast and “strong as ever.”
While he could never control his height, Ty has learned to use it to his advantage. He had a perfect player to learn from in his dad, who, at 5-foot-8, tallied 306 goals and 563 assists in 1,137 NHL games.
“When I played, I think I was more the guy carrying the puck and looking for someone like Ty, who’s more of a shooter and gets to the front of the net,” Cliff said this week by phone from Burnaby, British Columbia. “But I see that buzzsaw, get the puck down low and create havoc on the bigger defensemen that sometimes don’t like playing against guys like that. I never had the shot that Ty has, that’s for sure.”
Cliff began his NHL career with the Blues in 1986, the first of seven teams he played for before playing his final season in 2003-04 with the Islanders. Some of his best years came with the Canucks, leading them to the Stanley Cup Finals 1994 before falling to the Rangers in seven games.
Ty was born three years after that series but has seen tapes of those games, even if they don’t come out too often. Still, he’s studied his dad plenty.
“Just watching him play, he was so smart and elusive,” Ty said. “The way he moved around and moved the puck and shot the puck was just incredible.”
Cliff remembered back to watching his son as he captured a Western Canada bantams championship in 2012, when he knew Ty had a future in the pros. Just like his dad years earlier, Ty was the tournament’s leading scorer. He played alongside future Islanders Rookie of the Year Mathew Barzal, among other top talent.
Both Ronnings also were named most sportsmanlike at their respective tournaments, always making up for size with their intangibles.
“When you’re a small player, you gotta play with a lot of heart and be dedicated, which he is,” Cliff said. “I think the [biggest] part is the willingness to sacrifice for the win. He’s that type of player, always was.”
Hundreds of miles away and a week earlier, Ty was speaking the same language as he continued to chase NHL dreams.
“My game’s based off of hard work, it always has been and it always will be,” he said. “I think I’m real close. … If there’s a chance, there’s a chance and I’m willing to take it and run with it.”