Forty games into the 2025-26 National Hockey League (NHL) season, the New York Rangers are ‘in it.’ That’s a positive for a team that lost its first seven home games of the season and currently owns the third-worst home record in the NHL. However, there are fundamental problems with this team that crop up when the team plays against the better teams in the league.
This season, the New York Islanders have 13 wins against teams that currently are top 15 in the league standings, but the Rangers have just eight. One of the reasons for that is the Rangers offense has gone missing too often this season. The Rangers have been shutout eight times, which is the most by far in the league. The team with the second most opponent shutouts has been shutout four times.
This comes down to not having adequate scoring depth. The Rangers rank 23rd in goals-for out of 32 teams. Artemi Panarin, Mika Zibanejad, JT Miller and Will Cuylle all have double digit goals this year but, after them, Alexis Lafreniere and Vincent Trocheck have eight, and Taylor Raddysh has seven. Then a defenseman Vladislav Gavrikov has six. The drop off among the forwards is severe after seventh place, as the next highest scoring forward Noah Laba has just five goals.
The Florida Panthers have as many points as the Rangers and they have more scoring depth even though they are missing their captain Aleksander Barkov. Their top scorer, Brad Marchand has 20 goals, six more than Panarin, and Sam Reinhart has 19. The Cats have 5 players with double digit goals which is just slightly better than the Rangers, but bottom sixers AJ Greer and Evan Rodrigues have chipped in eight and seven goals.
Rangers head coach Mike Sullivan rearranged the team’s forward lines recently, placing rookie Gabe Perreault and journeyman Jonny Brodzinski in the top six to little effect. Brodzinski has three goals in 24 games and Perreault has one in six games. Two bottom six forwards that have held back the Rangers’ scoring depth are Conor Sheary and Sam Carrick. While Carrick is more of a checker and fighter than a goal scorer, he still only has one goal in 40 games. Sheary has scored 20 goals before in the league and has one goal this season despite playing in nearly every game. Former first round draft pick Brennan Othmann also has earned playing time during this previous stretch of 10 games but is yet to find his first NHL goal nor has he registered a point this season.
Despite these glaring deficiencies in terms of individual stats, when you look at the best forward lines in the league, the Rangers have two that rank top 20 in expected goals percentage (xGoals%). Those two lines are the now disbanded Sheary-Miller-Lafreniere line and the Cuylle-Zibanejad-Panarin line. In the Rangers previous game, Sullivan went with a first forward line of Panarin-Zibanejad-Lafreniere, but the Rangers were shutout by their rivals the New York Islanders for the second straight time this season. In his last five games, Panarin has 3 goals and one assist which isn’t bad. However, when facing more beatable teams like the Predators, Canucks and Islanders, he was held off the scoresheet. Panarin may be leading the Rangers in points this year, but his play has been inconsistent. The same goes for Zibanejad, who has four points in his last five games but has been held off the scoresheet three times. The Rangers best forwards just simply can’t go silent against beatable teams.
However, the Blueshirts’ most valuable player through the first half of 2025-26 has been its number one goaltender, Igor Shesterkin. Even in losses, the 29-year-old Russian makes great saves that gives the Rangers a fighting chance.
Let’s look at some stats; this season, Shesterkin has faced the most shots (864) in the NHL. The goalie who has faced the second-most shots has faced 64 fewer than Shesterkin. Despite facing heavy shot volume on a nightly basis, Shesterkin is tied for second in the NHL in wins with 16. Also, in 16 of the 31 starts Shesterkin has made, he has allowed two or fewer goals. The Ranger backup, Jonathan Quick has been equally impressive. In six of the nine starts Quick has made, he has allowed two or fewer goals. Quick’s stats speak glowingly of his play as well. The Connecticut-native has a .937 save percentage and 1.97 goals against average.
So where are the deficiencies in terms of team defense? The Rangers have the 13th-best penalty kill in the league (81.58 percent) but have a middling 5-on-5 Corsi-For percentage at 50.6. Corsi-For measures how much possession of the puck a team has been having. More possession means less time for the opponent to set up high danger chances. Surprisingly though, the Rangers have had the eighth-lowest high danger chances against but conversely have given up the fourth-most shots, blocks and misses. In their most recent game against the Islanders, the Rangers were out-chanced 28 to 21, but they gave up just as many high danger chances as the Isles gave up. Still, a chance is a chance and the Rangers got seriously outplayed offensively.
Over the last month or so, the Rangers have leaned on rookies Matthew Robertson and Scott Morrow. Robertson has fit in well but has struggled offensively and the same goes for Morrow. The 23-year-old the Rangers acquired in the trade that sent K’Andre Miller to the Carolina Hurricanes has even been made the Rangers’ power play quarterback while ex-Norris trophy winner Adam Fox has been out. Morrow moves the puck well, but it hasn’t produced results yet as he is still looking for his first goal with the Blueshirts and has produced just three assists in 15 games since joining the team in mid-November.
Fox’s injury hurts the team’s offense on several levels as he remains third on the team in points scored with 26 despite missing the last 13 games. No Ranger defenseman has stepped up to contribute more offensively in Fox’s absence; Gavrikov may have 14 points but he’s more of a stay-at-home blueliner than an offensive one; Will Borgen is good at winning battles in the corners and net-front, but has 4 points in 33 games; Braden Schneider is a good, physical defenseman but he’s not going to contribute much offense and Carson Soucy just doesn’t possess the mobility and stickhandling ability to be much of a threat offensively. The Rangers are handcuffed without Fox and need their bottom six forwards to step up and provide scoring depth in the absence of such a key player.
Recently, Fox was seen practicing in full contact gear. This means his return is probably slated for the end of next week. MSG Networks analyst Steve Valiquette said in a recent X post that “it’s starting to look bleak” regarding the Rangers season and that they “are going to need a massive second half” to get themselves in playoff position. The Rangers may only be three points out of the second wild card spot in the Eastern Conference, but Valiquette is right. Their biggest division rival, the Devils recently got alternate captain and star center Jack Hughes back from injury and will be back in form soon and the Rangers will face six teams currently in playoff position over their next 10 games.
Can the New York Rangers hang on until they get their alternate captain back?
