TARRYTOWN, N.Y. — While many New York Rangers are heading into the long summer with uncertain futures, Mika Zibanejad left no doubt about his intentions.
“I want to be here,” the forward said from breakup day at the MSG Training Center. “I want to be here to turn this around.”
It was as firm a commitment as any veteran has made in the aftermath of team president Chris Drury announcing Jan. 16 that the team was going into a retool. With the power of a full no-movement clause for three of the final four years of his contract, Zibanejad clearly isn’t going anywhere.
It shouldn’t come as a surprise. The 6-foot-2, 208-pounder just completed his 10th season in New York, where he’s started a family and grown to love a city that’s re-embraced him following a rocky 2024-25 season. He’s been through one rebuild already with the Rangers, but sounded hopeful that this will be a quicker process.
“You just look around the league and see how fast it can go,” said Zibanejad, who turned 33 on Saturday. “I’m optimistic, especially with the young guys coming in, too, and playing. I don’t feel like we need a whole lot.”
The Rangers will need Zibanejad to maintain his 2025-26 level if they’re going to have any chance of pulling it off. He jumped from 62 points last season to 78 (34 goals and 44 assists) during a campaign that featured him as New York’s only consistent offensive threat and concluded with the center winning his third team MVP award.
“I think I proved — to not myself, but maybe to some other people who had a thing or two to say about me last year — what I can do and what I’m still capable of doing,” the normally soft-spoken Swede said. “I’ve still gotta bring it again next year, but of course it was a positive thing for me. … I don’t think I doubted myself too much, but it’s nice to see some results.”
Sullivan points to two areas of need
In his final comments of the season, Rangers coach Mike Sullivan admitted that he didn’t anticipate the team struggling to the extent it did — a last-place finish in the Eastern Conference and third-worst record in the NHL — but he, too, is on board for whatever comes next.
“What I’ll tell you is that we (have) unwavering investment into the Rangers,” he said. “That will never falter from my standpoint.”
Sullivan described his role as “supportive” in terms of strategizing offseason moves with Drury, pinpointing two areas he believes New York will try to address: puck-moving defensemen and bottom-six forwards.
The need for skilled D, particularly on the left side, has been apparent. Outside of Adam Fox, the Rangers have very few defensemen who grade out as above average for zone exits and clearing passes, according to All Three Zones.
Sullivan’s call for improving the bottom six, though, was a little more surprising. The coach noted wanting to add players who could reduce penalty-killing minutes for veterans such as Zibanejad and J.T. Miller, but New York has a glut of young forwards who finished the season on the NHL roster — Jaroslav Chmelař, Adam Edström, Tye Kartye, Noah Laba, Matt Rempe and Adam Sýkora — and will be vying for those spots in the fall.
The bigger holes appear to be in the top six, where the Rangers are short at least one or two pieces and could lose another if they trade Vincent Trocheck. They ranked 23rd in the league in goals per game this season with an average of 2.87, and tied a franchise low by being shut out 10 times. And now they’re moving forward without Artemi Panarin, who led the team in scoring each of the previous six seasons before being traded to the Los Angeles Kings on Feb. 4.
“I do think we have the makings of guys that can finish and produce offense for us,” said Sullivan, who named Miller, Trocheck, Zibanejad, Will Cuylle and Alexis Lafrenière. “Obviously, when you look at our overall year, that was one of our challenges. I think we made strides on the other side of the puck, in particular in the defensive zone. Our coaches were encouraged with the structure that we set out to put in place and the buy-in that we got from the players. … But I do think the offensive side is something that we have to look to improve on, and that can happen a number of different ways.”
Drury leaves door open for top-six addition
When asked for his own thoughts on the Rangers’ primary needs, Drury deferred to Sullivan.
“I thought those were two good comments by him and two specific areas,” he said, referring to Sullivan’s mention of puck-moving defensemen and bottom-six forwards.
Drury, who declined a request from the New York chapter of the Professional Hockey Writers Association to hold his end-of-season interview in person, was lighter on specifics during his 14-minute Zoom call with reporters. But he seemed to leave the door open when asked whether he thinks the Rangers have enough firepower in the top six.
“We’re always looking at tweaking and looking at ways to get more scoring,” he said. “Not relying on one person — spreading out the scoring — is always a good way to look at things, and we had some success that way down the stretch.
“But again, as far as scoring and looking at the top six, I do think we have a lot of really good players in the top six that got a lot more opportunity down the stretch and produced at a good rate.”
Shesterkin believes he ‘could play way better’
Igor Shesterkin might not have played at his 2021-22 Vezina Trophy-winning level, but he still finished the season with a .912 save percentage, tied for fourth in the league. Only Logan Thompson, Ilya Sorokin, Jeremy Swayman and Andrei Vasilevskiy finished ahead of him in goals saved above expected, per Evolving-Hockey.
None of the numbers made Shesterkin feel satisfied with his year.
“I could play way better, for sure,” he said. “I was a little bit shocked when I checked my numbers. I was a little bit upset about it, but still it was top-four, top-five (in save percentage). I cannot say that’s pretty good, but still.”
Several Rangers could appear at World Championships
The Rangers will likely have multiple representatives at the IIHF World Championships this summer. Zibanejad and Miller — both of whom were at the Olympics — said they won’t go to the tournament, but it could provide younger players with an opportunity to play in big games.
“Ultimately, it’s the players’ decision: It’s their time, it’s their family time,” Drury said. “I try not to push a player either way.”
Sýkora (Slovakia) said he will join the Slovakian National Team in a week and try to make the team. He was at last summer’s World Championships, so it’s likely he’ll make the team again. Chmelař (Czechia) said he would love to represent his country.
“We will see if I get the call, but I hope I’ll get the chance to fight for the team,” Chmelař said.
Noah Laba said he talked to Team USA about potentially playing at the tournament, but isn’t yet sure if he will. Gabe Perreault also talked to the Team USA brass and said he “thought about it, but I’m not going to be going.”
“I think it’s a big summer for me,” the rookie forward added. “I want to spend more time in the gym and be able to put some more strength on. I think that was a bigger thing that I needed.”
Will Cuylle represented Canada at the 2025 World Championships. He hasn’t decided yet whether he’ll go this summer. Goalie Dylan Garand was also on Canada’s roster last summer.
“I still haven’t heard anything, so that’s probably not a good sign,” he said.
Lafrenière said he also hasn’t had any conversations with Team Canada yet. Asked if he has an interest in going, he said, “Yeah, but we’ll see.”
Of all the Rangers, only Urho Vaakanainen is already named to a World Championship roster. He’ll play for a Finnish team that also includes Florida center Aleksander Barkov, who is returning from a torn ACL.
Rempe confident in thumb improvement
Matt Rempe’s season was derailed in his ninth game of the season. During a fight with Ryan Reaves, his left thumb got stuck in the Sharks forward’s jersey and broke in multiple places, necessitating surgery. He made a pair of attempted returns but didn’t feel like himself in game action, in part because he had trouble gripping his stick. With the thumb not healing the way the doctors wanted following the first surgery, Rempe went through a second procedure in February. That ended a season in which he played 26 games and had only one point.
Rempe said he’s “very confident” his thumb will be 100 percent by training camp.
“Now it’s more getting my forearm strength back, getting my grip strength back,” he said. “But I can do everything now.”
The 23-year-old will have added competition for playing time with the emergence of Kartye, Chmelař and Sýkora as bottom-six options.
“You want to earn your spot,” Rempe said. “I’ve got to come to camp, and I’m going to earn it. I’m going to work my bag off all summer.”
Drury, staff preparing for top-five selection
With Calgary’s win against the Kings on Thursday, the Rangers clinched the third-best odds for the No. 1 pick in this summer’s draft (11.5 percent) and guaranteed themselves a top-five selection. Along with the top-five pick, the Rangers have 11 total selections, their most since 2004, including another late first-round selection courtesy of the K’Andre Miller trade.
The Rangers traded their top-13 protected 2025 first-round pick in the J.T. Miller deal. They ended up getting the No. 12 selection, but the front office chose to still give that pick up to Pittsburgh (via Vancouver) rather than risk losing the 2026 pick. It’s a decision Drury said Friday he’s “certainly glad” about.
“I can tell you, we’re extremely prepared,” he said. “I have a lot of faith in (director of amateur scouting) John Lilley and his amateur staff. They worked tirelessly all over the world to get the list in order and make sure we’re making good picks — not only with that pick, but every other pick we have this coming year.”