The New York Rangers need coach Mike Sullivan to lead these players to bounce-back campaigns.
In just about every regard, the Rangers had a brutal 2024-25 season after winning the Presidents’ Trophy the year before with the seventh-most goals-for.
Naturally, there had to be significant change for the Rangers this summer, including firing Peter Laviolette and replacing him with former Pittsburgh Penguins coach Sullivan.
One of Sullivan's goals must be unlocking this team's scoring after the team fell to 12th in goals-for last season.
Most members of the Rangers’ core had down years on offense compared to their past production.
To wit: Rangers star left winger Artemi Panarin posted 89 points in 2024-25 – a whopping 31 points fewer than the 120 he put up in 2023-24 and the fewest in an 82-game season since 2018-19.
Defenseman Adam Fox generated 61 points last year – 12 points fewer than his 2023-24 total of 73. Fox had three straight 70-point years, and at 27, he's nowhere near aging out of his prime.
Young right winger Alexis Lafreniere posted 45 points last season – down 12 from the 57 he had in 2023-24. He's only 23, but as a first overall pick in 2020, he needs to truly break out soon.
Veteran center Vincent Trocheck had 59 points last year – 18 points fewer than his 77 in 2023-24 and 64 before that.
Of course, there's also center Mika Zibanejad, whose 62 points were his fewest as a Ranger in an 82-game season. Heck, even in 2019-20 when he played 57 games, he still had more points, with 75.
Add it all up, and that’s a notable amount of offense the Rangers lost last season, despite having a very similar lineup in the last two years. That’s part of the reason Laviolette got pink-slipped and why Sullivan replaced him.
Obviously, Sullivan's Penguins finishing 18th in goals-for in each of the last two years aren't flattering – but his numbers inspired confidence when he had a playoff-caliber roster.
In the five years the Penguins made the playoffs after winning back-to-back Stanley Cups, they finished in the top 10 of goals-for per game four times – they finished 11th in 2021-22. Their power-play success rate ranked in the top five in three of those seasons.
The Penguins may have had Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Phil Kessel averaging more than a point per game in 2017-18, for example, but they didn't have five players recording at least 70 points like the Rangers did when they won the Presidents' Trophy.
The Rangers’ biggest roster move this summer was essentially swapping out defenseman K’Andre Miller for former Columbus Blue Jackets and Los Angeles Kings D-man Vladislav Gavrikov. When they upgraded on ‘D’ by adding Gavrikov to be a stay-at-home force who eats up major minutes, Miller became expendable.
Gavrikov should help limit the number of shots and goals against, but if the Rangers don't get bounce-back seasons on offense from their core, then it might not matter.
So, you can see why the Rangers aren’t a shoo-in to get back into the playoffs this season. To do that, they need rebound years from just about every key veteran player. They need star goalie Igor Shesterkin to dominate and steal more games. And they need to assert themselves among a group of teams – the Blue Jackets, New York Islanders, Penguins and Philadelphia Flyers – who will be battling for essentially one playoff berth in the Metro.
If not even Sullivan can get their players to bounce back, there could be much bigger change coming to their roster.
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