Jeff Curry-Imagn ImagesMike Sullivan has had a change of heart regarding how he wants to utilize Gabe Perreault now that he’s back with the New York Rangers.
When Perreault was called up from the Hartford Wolf Pack of the American Hockey League in November, Sullivan was adamant about the fact that he wanted Perreault to play a top-six role.
“Our intention is to try to set him up for success so he can play with strengths,” Sullivan said of Perreault in November. “I don't know that it makes a whole lot of sense to call up a player like that and put him in a bottom-six role. I think he's a guy that potentially could help us if we can get the best version of him, so it's a great opportunity for him.”
During his three-game stint with the Rangers in November, Perreault played on a line alongside J.T. Miller and Mika Zibanejad, but matching up against the team’s top players proved to be a problem for the young rookie.
Sullivan moved Perreault down to the bottom six in late-game situations, indicating an overall lack of trust in him, particularly from a defensive standpoint.
As a result of his last stint, Sullivan has changed his philosophy on Perreault’s usage. In his first game back with the Blueshirts, the 20-year-old was slotted onto the third line alongside Noah Laba and Taylor Raddysh.
On Saturday, Sullivan backtracked on his original decision to immediately give Perreault a top-six role, admitting it was overwhelming for him, while not ruling out the posibility of putting him back in that position if his performance warrants it.
“Our observation when we had him up the last time was, it was a really difficult task. And our thought process was, when we put him right up into the top six, is we understand the type of player that he is, and we're trying to put him in a position to be successful,” Sullivan said. “He's an offensive player with good offensive instincts, and so our intention was to put him with our best offensive people, and that's what we did.
“The flip side of that is you're going to play against the opponent's top players. You're going to get the top defense players. You're going to get the very best players that you're playing against. And so, this time around, we thought more in terms of, 'Would it make sense for Gabe if we put him around some different people, and maybe he doesn't get the top defense pair?' It gives him an opportunity to act on his instincts and do his thing that way, and then we'll watch him and we'll see. If there's an opportunity to move him up, we'll move him up."
On Thursday night in the Rangers’ 2-1 win over the St. Louis Blues, Perreault scored his first career NHL goal.