Depending on which NHL prospects expert you believe, Gabe Perreault is capable of becoming a 100-point star for the New York Rangers or could be a middle-six player who never reaches his full potential due to size and skating concerns.
In fact, the 21-year-old was at the center of a heated debate recently on The Athletic Hockey Show, during which Perreault drew comparisons ranging from reigning Hart Trophy winner Nikita Kucherov to the disappointing Matias Maccelli.
“This is a wide gap here,” the show’s referee, er co-host, Max Bultman said at one point as the debate raged primarily between Chris Peters and Corey Pronman.
This all stemmed from Scott Wheeler’s recent Top 100 NHL prospects list for The Athletic, where Perreault landed No. 19 overall, in the second tier of prospects that also included New York’s top selection in this year’s draft, Alberts Smits. The defenseman ranked No. 9 overall among prospects not older than 23 and yet to become established as NHL regulars.
Pronman got things rolling when he called Perreault a “slow, 5-foot-11 winger, who had a nice year playing on two bad teams with Hartford and the Rangers,” before adding, “I like him a lot and he’s a good player.”
Wheeler immediately countered, stating that Perreault is a “potential first-line winger.”
“He made a ton of plays on that Rangers team towards to end of the season,” Wheeler offered. “There were some ups and downs for him at the NHL level. [But] he was a driver on a terrible AHL team offensively, and late in the year he was a driver — say what you will about the team — he was still a driver on an NHL team from a skill, play-making, getting his linemates into good spots, putting pucks into good spots, execution, power play.”
Perreault excelled at Hartford to begin his rookie season, scoring 10 goals and totaling 17 points in 20 AHL games. Though it took him some time to find his footing in the NHL, he took off when placed on a line with Mika Zibanejad and Alexis Lafreniere down the stretch. He finished with 27 points (12 goals, 15 assists) in 49 games with the Rangers.
The 2023 first-round pick (No. 23 overall) closed out his first NHL season with 19 points in 23 games, including a hat trick against the Detroit Red Wings on April 4, raising hopes that he will break out for the Rangers this coming season.
NHL prospects expert believes Rangers’ Gabe Perreault ‘one of smartest offensive players’
Of course, Perreault has a serious history of producing offensively. His 132 points in 2022-23 are still the single-season record for the United States National Team Development Program. He also had 108 points in 73 NCAA games over two seasons with Boston College, and helped the U.S. win consecutive World Junior Championships in 2024 and 2025, combing for 20 points in 14 games.
So, yes, Perreault’s never been the biggest guy at any level. But that’s never stopped him from producing. And Wheeler explained why.
“I think Gabe is one of the smartest offensive players outside of the NHL, in terms of this group, just in terms of how he thinks it offensively, the way he reads it,” he stated. “I think the skill level is high high-end, and I’ve never felt that the competitiveness and skating were nearly the marks against him that some have. I think he skates fine, he works.”
To which Pronman replied, “I think his skating is an issue. I think he competes very well for a small guy. I feel like you’re hoping he’s like [Jonathan] Marchessault now,” referring to the eight-time 20-goal scorer, who stand 5-foot-9 and currently plays for the Nashville Predators.
Wheeler stood by his take.
“He’s going to be a 60-, 70-point guy in the League.”
And then Peters got involved in the debate and took things to a whole other level.
Gabe Perreault ‘can be 100-point player’ for Rangers: Chris Peters
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In his opening comments on the matter, Peters dropped Kucherov, the NHL superstar that stands 6-feet even, as a comp for Perreault, and doubled down with a 100-point projection for the Rangers rising star.
“So, let’s go back in time to 2013-14 with the Tampa Bay Lightning. Nikita Kucherov 18 points in 52 games. Gabe Perreault, arguably, was a more impactful rookie than Nikita Kucherov was,” Peters stated. I don’t think he’s going to be Kucherov-level in points, I’m not saying that. He is one of the most intelligent players on this list. I think he has among the most hockey sense offensively of any player here. The question is going to be — and what Kucherov’s benefit was that he did have one of the elite teams he walked into where it was [Steven] Stamkos, it was [Victor] Hedman. That’s not the advantage Gabe Perreault is going to have.
“But I think at the top of his projection, I do believe he can be a 100-point player in the League. I think he can play top-line minutes. And this is one where I was less convinced of that before this season. The games I watched of him with the Rangers, I was like, OK, it’s going to work. It’s probably not only going to work, it’s going to work really well.”
That’s when Pronman first drew a Marco Rossi comparison, and then sent Peters over the edge with this beaut.
“I think he’s closer to Maccelli, quite frankly.”
Yes, the 25-year-old forward who stands 5-foot-11, had two pretty good seasons with the Arizona Coyotes, but most recently was signed by the Islanders this summer in free agency after the Toronto Maple Leafs didn’t give him a qualifying offer.
“That’s bananas, like watch a freaking game. Maccelli? C’mon man,” Peters raged. “A guy that could not even get qualified this year? Give me a break.”
To be fair, Maccelli’s career high in points (57) is the same as Lafreniere. But it sure feels like Perreault upside is greater than that.
But is it at the Kucherov level? Boy, the Rangers would love that, or even if Perreault simply came anywhere near that level.
Kucherov has 1,124 points (401 goals, 723 assists) in 879 NHL games. He’s led the League in scoring three times, surpassed 100 points five times, notched 144 points in 2023-24, was named Hart Trophy winner twice, and, most importantly, helped the Lightning win two Stanley Cup championships.
“If [the Rangers] can get some support, because the thing Gabe has always done well is make others better and also take advantage of the skills around him,” Peters explained. “Now, he’s had great players he’s played with coming up through the ranks, namely Will Smith and Ryan Leonard. I’ve always thought because of the physical talents and more flashy talents that the players have had, he’s been underrated. But I think the brain and the hockey sense of him is Kucherov-level.”
That’s a good place to start. And it likely leads to a spot somewhere comfortably between these two projections between Kucherov on the high end and Maccelli at the other end of the spectrum.
Jim Cerny is Executive Editor at Forever Blueshirts and Managing Editor at Sportsnaut, with more than 30 years of … More about Jim Cerny
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