{"id":538226,"date":"2026-04-03T09:20:27","date_gmt":"2026-04-03T09:20:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/538226\/"},"modified":"2026-04-03T09:20:27","modified_gmt":"2026-04-03T09:20:27","slug":"rangers-fluid-play-plan-for-noah-laba-is-paying-off-for-development-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/538226\/","title":{"rendered":"Rangers\u2019 fluid play plan for Noah Laba is paying off for development"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"An<\/p>\n

An image collage containing 2 images, Image 1 shows New York Rangers center Noah Laba #42 moves the puck down ice during the first period, Image 2 shows Noah Laba #42 of the New York Rangers takes a shot on Goal during the first period when the New York Rangers played the Washington Capitals Sunday, October 12, 2025<\/p>\n

Of the two rookies who have been on the Rangers roster since Opening Night, Noah Laba has had the experience of a full-time NHLer.<\/p>\n

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tRY IT NOW <\/a><\/p>\n

Not only did he make his debut in Game 1 and project to hang on to the third-line center role he seized out of training camp, but the 22-year-old endured two injury stints. The jump from college hockey to the NHL can be a big one. For Laba, the transition appeared to be natural.<\/p>\n

Upon Laba\u2019s return from this most recent lower-body injury, however, his spot at 3C was not waiting for him. He centered the fourth line for a third straight game in Thursday night\u2019s 3-2 loss to the Canadiens<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Because usual fourth-line center Sam Carrick was traded to Buffalo, head coach Mike Sullivan had to move J.T. Miller back to the middle to make up for the loss of Laba. Miller believes he\u2019s the \u201cbest version\u201d of himself at center, so Sullivan reinserted Laba on the fourth line behind the captain, Mika Zibanejad and Vincent Trocheck.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s probably a fair assumption to say that when you play more, you have more of an opportunity to develop,\u201d Sullivan said after practice Wednesday. \u201cWe\u2019re moving [Laba] around. We\u2019ve spotted him on the second power play, he\u2019s been a big part of our penalty kill. We\u2019ve had this running conversation all year long. Whether we play J.T. in the middle and we have Mika, J.T. and Troch up the middle or do we play them together to try to bolster the top six? That\u2019s been the fundamental question that we\u2019ve wrestled with all year.<\/p>\n

\"Noah<\/p>\n

Noah Laba moves the puck down ice during the first period of the Rangers\u2019 win over the Flames on March 10, 2026. Charles Wenzelberg \/ New York Post<\/p>\n

\u201cNow, the reality is because of the injuries, when you look at some of the decisions that we\u2019ve made, there\u2019s been a lot of that that\u2019s gone into it that really didn\u2019t leave us a lot of options, right? Because of the injuries and situations like that. When Labs got hurt and we constructed the lines the way we did, we\u2019ve liked some of what we\u2019ve seen. We\u2019re trying to help J.T. capture his very best game and that\u2019s an important element for us for a lot of reasons. We\u2019re trying to help Labs continue to develop as a young player and that\u2019s important to us also. I don\u2019t think it\u2019s as simple as asking one question, is it best for this individual? We\u2019ve got multiple objectives in mind that we\u2019re trying to accomplish.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re trying to help Labs continue to grow and develop and we really like the progress he\u2019s made this year, and we\u2019re trying to help him continue on that path. We\u2019re trying to help Gabe Pereault continue to grow and develop because we\u2019ve really liked the progress he\u2019s made this year, and we\u2019re going to try to help him continue to grow. We\u2019re trying to help J.T. capture his very best game because we think that\u2019s going to give us the best chance to have success moving forward. I don\u2019t think the question is as simple as, \u2018Hey, let\u2019s do this.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n

Laba skated in the middle of the third line in 39 of his first 42 games of the season.<\/p>\n

When Trocheck was sidelined with an upper-body injury in November, Laba moved around a bit. The Colorado College product spent one game on the fourth line before serving as the second-line center twice.<\/p>\n

But of the 68 games he\u2019s played this season, Laba has spent 62 on the third unit.<\/p>\n

\"Noah<\/p>\n

Noah Laba takes a shot during the first period of the Rangers\u2019 loss to the Capitals on Oct. 12, 2025. Robert Sabo for NY Post<\/p>\n

After failing to trade Trocheck ahead of the deadline this season, the Rangers will likely look to trade No. 16 again this summer. That would open up the third-line center role for Laba, but would still leave the team one adequate center short.<\/p>\n

Juuso Parssinen didn\u2019t do much with his 20 games this season, over which he mustered one goal and three assists.<\/p>\n

The Adam Edstrom switch to the middle was short-lived, and now the Swede is watching games from the press box. Thursday\u2019s game was his fifth straight healthy scratch.<\/p>\n

Unless Trocheck sticks around, another fourth-line center will probably need to be acquired via free agency this offseason.<\/p>\n

As for Laba, the foundation has been laid for an NHL career. He said part of this season is about learning to be a better pro and how to best take care of his body during recovery and rehab.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust continue to try to get better and improve, learn as much as I can, and again, do the best I can with the opportunity I\u2019m given,\u201d Laba said recently. \u201cIt\u2019s been awesome [to have fellow rookies around]. They\u2019ve been great. Brought a lot of energy into the locker room, and couldn\u2019t be happier for them, but just great to have them around.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An image collage containing 2 images, Image 1 shows New York Rangers center Noah Laba #42 moves the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":538227,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5111],"tags":[7288,5,2685,6019,160,1955,3328,35,5190,5193,4,11691,36,5920,33,3042],"class_list":{"0":"post-538226","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-rangers","8":"tag-adam-edstrom","9":"tag-hockey","10":"tag-j-t-miller","11":"tag-juuso-parssinen","12":"tag-mika-zibanejad","13":"tag-mike-sullivan","14":"tag-new-york","15":"tag-new-york-rangers","16":"tag-newyork","17":"tag-newyorkrangers","18":"tag-nhl","19":"tag-noah-laba","20":"tag-rangers","21":"tag-sam-carrick","22":"tag-the-rangers","23":"tag-vincent-trocheck"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116340041815085041","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/538226","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=538226"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/538226\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/538227"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=538226"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=538226"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=538226"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}