Twenty games into the New York Rangers’ 2025-26 season and the Blueshirts are a tale of two teams: on one hand, they have the worst home record in the National Hockey League (NHL) at 1-7-1. On the other hand, they have played better than any team on the road with a 9-1-1 record just a smidge better than the Los Angeles Kings who have a 9-2-2 road record. These records combine to give head coach Mike Sullivan’s team a 10-8-2 overall record and put them in fourth place in the highly competitive Metropolitan Division.
What’s made the difference recently? Well, the Rangers are 4-2-0 this season with Vincent Trocheck in the lineup, 6-6-2 without him and 3-0-0 when the center scores a point. Dating back to a November 8 loss to the Islanders, superstar Artemi Panarin has 11 points in his last six games. ‘The Breadman’ shaved his head before the Ranger game on November 7 and immediately scored three points in a win over the Detroit Red Wings. Bald has been the way to go for the 34-year-old four-time All-Star so far, this 2025-26 NHL season and the Rangers will be counting on that production to continue. Panarin will need to do even more than he has though, as his 18 points rank 44th on the NHL leaderboard as of November 17.
Also, one of the Rangers most important players, center and alternate captain Mika Zibanejad has caught fire a bit. The 32-year-old has points in four straight games as of November 17 and has skated 20:50 minutes of ice time on average this season, which ranks first among Ranger forwards and third among Ranger skaters behind off-season acquisition Vladislav Gavrikov and former Norris trophy-winner Adam Fox.
Since October 23, Sullivan’s Rangers have been missing the media lightning-rod and their biggest forward in terms of physical size, Matt Rempe. The 6-foot-9 winger was placed on long-term injured reserve on November 10 after sustaining an upper-body injury during a fight with Sharks’ winger Ryan Reaves. Since losing Rempe, the Rangers are 7-4. Last season, they were 18-20-2 without Rempe in the lineup.
Rempe may have went down but bottom-six forwards like Jonny Brodzinski have stepped up in his absence. Brodzinski has only contributed two points so far this season, but he is a +1 and has averaged 10:35 of ice in nine games. Another bottom-six winger who has also been a pleasant surprise is Taylor Raddysh. The 27-year-old former Washington Capital has five goals so far on the season which is good for third-most on the club behind only Zibanejad, who has seven and Will Cuylle, who has six.
On the flip side, former first-overall pick Alexis Lafreniere has had mixed results this season. Despite averaging a team 10th-most 17:26 minutes of ice time per game, the Quebec-native has produced just four goals which is tied for fourth on the team along with equally disappointing Rangers newly-named Captain J.T. Miller. Lafreniere’s eight assists rank third on the team behind Panarin and Fox, who each have 13.
But the New York Rangers have to start scoring more goals because currently they rank 26th in the NHL in goals-for this season with 50. The Rangers have scored just one more goal than the Buffalo Sabres have and Buffalo are last place in the Eastern Conference. Conversely, the Broadway Blueshirts have conceded the sixth-fewest goals as a team in the NHL (49) just three fewer than the New Jersey Devils who sit first place in the Eastern Conference as of November 17.
Special teams can go a long way. As of November 16, the Ranger power play had scored in four of their last five games.
“We went through that stretch of games where it was just a struggle for us to score 5-on-5, the power play, every circumstance but I feel like as this season’s gone on here we’re starting to climb our way out of that and most recently the games where we’ve scored a fair amount of goals is just evidence of that but I’m sure Will (Cuylle’s) presence at the net-front certainly helps.” – Mike Sullivan after the Rangers win on November 15
Twenty games into the season, the Rangers are in the hunt for the Metropolitan division lead because of the rock-solid goaltending they’ve been getting. Their number one goalie, Igor Shesterkin, who won the Vezina trophy in 2022, is tied for third for most wins in the league with eight. He does have six losses and two overtime losses, though. Among the 20 NHL goalies who have started at least 12 games this year, Shesterkin’s .913 save-percentage (SV%) ranks third.
The Ranger backup has been equally great. Two-time Stanley Cup champion Jonathan Quick has started five games, gone 3-2-0 and has a .951 save percentage, which is the best in the league among goalies who have made at least five starts. It’s been well-documented that Quick brings more to the table than just what he does on the ice. He’s also a leader in the dressing room and sticks up for his teammates as was evident when he went after Red Wings’ forward Mason Appleton for firing the puck at the Rangers’ empty net during a 2-1 loss at home.
As for the Rangers I haven’t mentioned, Braden Schneider continues to prove he is one of the best young defensemen in the league; Noah Laba, who surprised everyone when he made the Blueshirts out of training camp, continues to prove he can be the team’s third line center; Veteran Carson Soucy has found his game and contributed a physical brand of hockey in his defensive zone after a slow start; Will Borgen has been a dogged defender, although he has missed the last two games with an upper-body injury.
Sam Carrick has been as gritty as ever, as was evident when he fought Blue Jackets enforcer Mathieu Olivier; Adam Edstrom knows his role and does his job; Rookie Matthew Robertson has found his niche as a third-pair defensemen and been a pleasant surprise vis-a-vis Laba; Conor Sheary provides a little energy from the Rangers bottom six forward group but is yet to score a goal so far this season.
Defenseman Urho Vaakanainen had scored two points in his last three games before being scratched for the Rangers game on Novembe 16, but overall has a +3 plus/minus rating this season. Juuso Parssinen has scored a goal this season but he has just three points and hasn’t checked enough which has led the coaching staff to scratch him recently.
The one player who is currently an unknown is defenseman Scott Morrow. The Rangers acquired him in the trade that sent K’Andre Miller to the Carolina Hurricanes during the offseason. As of November 17, the 23-year-old has played in one game. Stay tuned for more on him and the other Rangers players when I check back in with my column after the Rangers 30th game.
The Rangers can count on their goalies, but will they be able to count on their offense and defense to pick up the slack? Time will tell.
