Chris Kreider is entering his 12th NHL season, all of which have come with the New York Rangers. He had a strong 2022-23 season in the goal-scoring department, but can the seasoned veteran get his points total up in the 2023-24 campaign?
Over the past decade-plus as a New York Rangers, Chris Kreider has become one of, if not the most reliable goal scorers that the organization has seen. Sure, there have been some lows, but Kreider seems to always find a way to have a big moment when the team needs it most.
After a historic 2021-22 season where he scored 52 goals (77 points), Kreider finished the 2022-23 year with 36 goals, which is very strong, but he only had 18 assists which could be considered a disappointment to his offensive output.
I spoke with my good friend Anna Dua, the co-host of the NHL's Fantasy On Ice podcast about her expectations for Kreider this season, to which she stated: "Kreider has great chemistry with [Mika] Zibanejad on their top line and is a safe bet to score at least 30 goals with an even higher ceiling if he benefits from production on the man-advantage." Dua has Kreider projected to put up 65 points, which to me sounds very reasonable.
To Dua's point, not many players have benefited more than Kreider over the past two seasons on the power play. In fact, dating back to the beginning of the 2021-22 season, only two players have more goals on the man-advantage than Kreider (34), and that is Zibanejad (35) and Leon Draisaitl (56).
Kreider has never tallied more than 25 assists in a single season thus far in his career, but despite having 36 goals, he was a bit snake-bitten last year. In 2021-22, he finished with a +13.1 goals above expected, last season he ended up with a -0.8 in the same category. To add to that, his shooting percentage went from 20.2% in '21-22 to 15.7% last season.
It can be assumed that the Rangers' new head coach Peter Laviolette won't split up the dynamic duo of Kreider and Zibanejad, but it is still uncertain where the 12-year veteran might end up in the lineup. One thing that is certain is that he will be playing the net front on the first power play unit since that has become his bread and butter over the past few seasons.
Kreider only had eight power-play goals in the regular season last year but managed to score five in the first round against the New Jersey Devils. Those numbers have to go up next season, especially with how strong the Rangers man-advantage is.
I have high expectations for Kreider, but I'm not positive that he will ever produce like he did during the '21-22 season.
My prediction for Kreider is 62 points (38 goals, 24 assists).
