The New York Rangers 2024-25 season can be summed up in one word: disappointing. Following a season in which they won the President’s Trophy and made an appearance in the Eastern Conference Finals, the Rangers followed it up last year with a mediocre 39-36-7 record and failed to qualify for the playoffs.
So much has changed for them in such a short time. Artemi Panarin, Chris Kreider, Mika Zibanejad and Alexis Lafreniere all regressed and it killed them. Despite a huge acquisition of JT Miller who crushed it for them, the rest of their offensive Top-6 was just underwhelming when the team desperately needed wins.
Igor Shesterkin had a decent year in which he showed flashes of his elite net minding, but other glimpses of poor play. I, personally, think the defensive unit in front of him was unusually terrible and it was highlighted by K’andre Miller and Jacob Trouba who are no longer parts of the team. Trouba was traded during the season last year and Miller was just recently traded in the offseason. Say what you want about Igor’s 2.86 GAA and negative record (27-29), he faced the most shots in the league and in turn also led the league in saves. How can he lead the league in saves and have it still be viewed as a “bad” year?
It is clear that he was not the issue, despite some uncharacteristic clunkers last year. He is poised for a comeback season and if the defense can be any better than it was last year, his save percentage and GAA will naturally improve. He is a Vezina-caliber goaltender who can still dominate games. He is still only 29 years old and is freshly inked to a massive extension. He will be the Rangers goalie for at least 9 more years, so there is little doubt in my mind that he can be the one to bring a cup back to New York.
This leads me to the optimism part of the blog. There are plenty of reasons to be positive ahead of the 2025-26 season for the blueshirts. My first positive is JT Miller.
JT Miller is a rockstar for this team and is now recognized as the captain of the squad. He is a physical presence on the ice as can tally upwards of 200 hits and block dozens of shots. He hustles as hard as anyone else on the ice whenever he is out there and can even score at a fairly elite rate. We have seen him eclipse 100 points in a season before and even rack up 99 points in another season. He had 35 points in his 32-game return last year with the Rangers and fans are hopeful he can put up 80+ this year.
There is a growing likelihood that he plays alongside Will Cuylle, who is my second positive to highlight here, and Mika Zibanejad on the first line. Will Cuylle is just 23 years old and already has a 300+ hit season under his belt. He was a massive positive for the underwhelming Rangers last season and his point total of 45 will likely increase this year on the first line. JT’s leadership and Cuylle’s emergence could lead to a bounceback season from Mika Zibanejad too.
Mika was arguably the biggest disappointment last year and it was hard to watch. He was noticeably slower than ever and only managed to score 20 goals in 82 games. This is a guy who at one point had an elite slapt shot and unreal deking skills that positioned him in the top 10-20 players in the league at his peak. He has historically been a menace on the power play and usually finds himself scoring 12-20 power play goals per season, but this was dramatically reduced to just 7 last year. Something was wrong last year that we do not know about and that is the position I choose to take. He is still just 31 years old and should have some good hockey left in him. I think the move to Right Wing will be beneficial to him and the sheer physical presence of Cuylle and Miller might unlock vintage Mika.
The second line has a chance to be absolutely elite as well. Vincent Trocheck is another physical monster who had a career high 214 hits last season. The scoring totals went down a notch from the previous season, but that was the case for everyone on this team last year. The offensive regression across the board feels inexplicable and it may have been a cultural thing within the locker room. As someone who watches the team religiously, I blamed most of the season on the defense, or lack thereof, and I believe their poor play had a widespread impact on the whole team. But I digress.
Trochek was certainly not the issue and it felt like he and Cuylle were the only ones who cared about some games. I think he and Artemi Panarin are too good to NOT bounce back this season. Panarin is the offensive glue for the entire team. Just one year removed from an insane 120 point (49 goals) season, Artemi came back down to Earth with a 37 goal performance and 89 total points. 89 points is still very solid and if he can get himself back to his normal 95-100 point range, it would be huge for guys like Trochek and Alexis Lafreniere, who should also be poised for a comeback season.
It seems like a lot to ask for, but I genuinely think each of the players I highlighted could easily have comeback seasons and lead the Rangers back into the playoffs. However, with a dominant top-6 comes an uncertain bottom-6. We will likely be seeing various combinations of Noah Laba, Sam Carrick, Adam Edstrom, Matt Rempe, Jonny Brodzinski, Taylor Raddysh and Jusso Parssinen throughout the season and there is a decent level of uncertainty here. It will be interesting to see how these pairings develop and how long they stay in place while other youngsters like Gabe Perreault, Adam Sykora and Brennan Othman wait in the shadows
Defensively, it is nearly an entire new squad and that is for the best. Vladislav Gavrikov was brought in to be a first line defender with Adam Fox and it should be a very solid combination for the team. Gavrikov’s physicality fits the theme of the team and he has enough of an offensive prowess to keep up with Adam Fox as well. They balance each other out beautifully, even though Adam Fox does everything perfectly and at an elite level. Carson Soucy was brought in to likely be a second line defenseman with Will Borgen, who showed some positive signs of production last year in an abbreviated stint with the team. The third line will likely be a combination of Braden Schneider and one of Urho Vaakanainen or Matthew Robertson. Vaakanainen is more of a veteran presence while Robertson is viewed as one of the top prospects in the organization and a long-term fix.
I think Schneider has a clear path ahead of him to become a solid 2nd-line defender with K’Andre Miller dragging some other player down in another city. He is a player to watch this year.
There is reason to be nervous and reason to be excited. I am still mad at the team for trading Chris Kreider, and I will not hide that. As I mentioned in a previous blog, I hate that a franchise legend like Kreider was let go for nothing, and it is hard for me to look past that. I understand the business side of the decision, but you just do not treat team legends like that. It will take a stretch of fun hockey, solid production and some big wins to get me fully back on the hype train, but hype train or not…I will be watching. Like the fool I am, I will be watching every single game like I do with all my other teams who continue to disrespect my free time.
There is still some bitterness from last season and this past offseason, but as I pointed out, there is also some cause for optimism. The future appears to be bright for the Rangers, and a new core may slowly be forming at the garden. It will be interesting to see if this is a bridge year for the team or if they jump straight back into playoff contention.
At the end of the day, hockey is back. The Rangers are back (for the 100th time). And I am pumped.
Let’s Go Rangers!