Terrence Lee-Imagn ImagesIn the New York Rangers’ 6-3 win over the Winnipeg Jets on Thursday night, you may have noticed Adam Edström playing in a role he’s not ordinarily accustomed to.
It’s been a difficult season for Edström, who was coming off a significant lower-body injury, which cut his rookie campaign short.
Edström struggled to kick off the 2025-26 season, and after being scratched from the lineup for a game against the Golden Knights on Nov. 18, he opened up about his underwhelming play.
“Up and down, I know I can produce better hockey than I’ve done so far,” Edström said in November. “Overall, I just feel like I gotta be better when I’m out there.”
Unfortunately for the 25-year-old forward, his luck didn’t improve much, as he suffered a lower-body injury that landed him on long-term injured reserve.
He ultimately missed over two months before returning to the Rangers’ lineup on Mar. 5.
After playing just four games, Mike Sullivan rewarded Edström by putting him in a top-six role on a line alongside Vincent Trocheck and Will Cuylle.
Throughout his tenure with the Rangers, Edström has been a mainstay for the team’s bottom-six unit, and he admitted to not playing in a top-six role since his time with the Hartford Wolf Pack of the American Hockey League.
However, Sullivan felt strongly about giving Edström this opportunity.
"Eddy's now got a few games under his belt coming off the injury,” Sullivan said. “He's a big, strong guy, as you know, and he skates really well. I think he has a defensive conscience to his game. He's hard to play against, just by nature of his physical stature — his size, his skating ability, his reach — and he's a disruptive player on the forecheck.
“He can make it hard on defensemen. He can force turnovers, and usually he creates opportunity for himself. When you look at the scoresheet every night at the end of games, Eddy has an uncanny way of ending up on the positive side of that. He creates a lot of opportunities. And so we thought maybe we would give him a shot up the lineup and see if he can help us in that capacity.”
The Swedish forward was up for the task, recording a season high 13:45 minutes, while scoring his first goal since Nov. 24 against the Colorado Avalanche.
“It’s always fun,” Edström said about playing in an expanded role. “Troch (Trocheck) and Culles (Cuylle) are great hockey players, and to get that opportunity and that confidence from the coaches means a lot.”
With the Rangers in a retool mode and far out of a playoff spot, Sullivan has put an emphasis on giving the younger players more responsibilities.
Now, it appears as if Edström is a beneficiary of Sullivan’s new shift in philosophy and the direction of the organization, which caters to the Rangers’ youth.
“I think it means a lot. For the confidence, for my own sake, you just gain a little bit more confident and play more minutes and play more important stages of the game,” Edström said. “Also, that the coaches look at you that way, they feel like they could give you that confidence, means a lot.”