Tom Pyatt, 21, is a Ranger prospect with Sinatra-like piercing-blue eyes and a tom-cat confident walk. He is also a promising forward in the Ranger’s prospect system who is learning what it takes to make it into the NHL. I caught up with him at the Ranger’s annual training camp in Tarrytown, New York last week. This was his fourth year of participating in the camp, which for Pyatt, was just another lap around the track in his journey to the NHL.

Pyatt’s hockey journey began as child in Thunder Bay, Ontario. “My Dad built a rink in the backyard for us, so I was out there every day after school,” Pyatt explained. “It’s just kind of something I was put into when I was a kid.”

Not only does Pyatt come from a notorious hockey town (where his good buddy Marc Staal also played on a backyard rink with his three brothers), but he also hails from a hockey family. Nelson Pyatt, Tom’s father, played in the NHL during the 1970s. He was drafted by the Detroit Red Wings in 1973 and also played for the Washington Capitals and Colorado Rockies.

“I just have people in the family who played hockey.” Pyatt said. “As I grew up I got to see my brother [Taylor Pyatt of the Vancouver Canucks] make steps into the NHL.”

Pyatt knows better than anyone that getting into the NHL can’t be done overnight. He witnessed his brother play in the juniors and the OHL before making it in the NHL.

“I’d like to get to the NHL as quick as possible because I would love to play against [Taylor] you know? To play against him at the NHL level would be something. I think our parents would enjoy that too,” Pyatt said.

Pyatt himself played for local teams in Thunder Bay, including the AAA Thunder Bay King’s where he was teammates with current Ranger defenseman Marc Staal. Pyatt and Staal both won gold medals with team Canada in the Under-20 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships in 2006 and 2007. They were also both drafted by the Rangers in the 2005 NHL entry draft.

“Yeah, we’re good friends with each other. I see Marc quite a bit still” Pyatt said.

Back in 2003, Pyatt was drafted by the Saginaw Spirit of the OHL where he spent four seasons. He played a total of 240 regular season games with the Spirit and scored a total of 94 goals and 106 assists in his time in the OHL. In his best OHL season (2006-07) he score 43 goals, had 38 assists, and he was named the most sportsmanlike player of the year.

Last season, Pyatt played with the Hartford Wolfpack of the AHL. It was his first season with a professional club, which had an impact on his statistics. The Wolfpack roster boasted a number of gifted centers last season, including Artem Anisimov and Brodie DuPont, both of whom could be pulling on Blueshirts this season, depending on their performance at the Ranger’s prospect tournament in Traverse City at the end of the summer.

“They have a lot of good prospective players [in Hartford], so it was tough for me as a first year player to get a really good role on that team,” Pyatt said. “I played fourth line. I wasn’t really used to that role. I was more of a go-to player in junior hockey, so, it was just a change.”

Pyatt had a bit of a frustrating season with the Wolfpack last year, scoring just four goals and seven assists in 41 games. He’s certainly not the biggest forward on the ice at 5’ 11” but he has skill that can only come from growing up with a stick in hand and skates tightly laced from a young age. Skill that has been crafted by a father’s patient coaxing, etched by a brother’s subtle influence, and reiterated by a stellar hockey town program.

The missing element in Pyatt’s game, according to Ranger’s head coach Tom Renney, is confidence.

“We love his skating,” Renney said. “He needs to push the envelope from a physical perspective, which we believe he is very capable of.”

Renney doesn’t seem to think that Pyatt’s size will hold him back from excelling in the NHL. In fact, he even compared Pyatt’s physique to that of Rangers' rookie, Nigel Dawes, who had a remarkable first season on Broadway.

When asked how he plans to ‘push the envelope physically,’ Pyatt explained that: “They’re looking for me to stand out a bit more. They know I have the skill and I’m NHL ready for the game you know; I just need to stand out every night and make sure I’m getting involved all the time.”