For the New York Rangers, 2025 has been a mostly dreadful year. The Blueshirts have endured a dismantling of the core, missing the playoffs, and another head coaching change.
As this season’s halfway point and 2026 approaches, Broadway’s Original Six hockey club, celebrating its centennial season in the NHL, continues to exhibit historic futility in home games at Madison Square Garden. Their first victory at The World’s Most Famous Arena didn’t occur until November 10th,
Prior that cathartic first victory on home ice, the Rangers lost their first seven home games (0-6-1), scoring six goals and getting shut out five times. They’re still just 5-10-3 in home contests, third-worst in hockey right now. They’re also ranked 18th and 16th on the power play and penalty kill, respectively. An astonishing lack of production from the biggest stars and most glaring cap hits on the team has also impeded them, which is why these New Year’s resolutions can help the Rangers avoid a repeat of last season.
Rangers head coach Mike Sullivan has impressive credentials – two Stanley Cup victories as the Pittsburgh Penguin’s coach and 409 career wins. In addition to those feats, he’s now tasked with leading Team U.S.A. to a gold medal for the first time since 1980 in the 2026 Olympics in Milano, Italy.
One glaring omission from Sullivan’s ledger, however, is urgency with his new squad – in particular with the kids. Sullivan needs to commit to playing the youngsters – Gabe Perreault and Brennan Othmann, in particular. Perreault now has four points in six games this season – and that’s after a quick demotion back to the AHL right before Thanksgiving.
Good thing have happened when Perreault, a 2023 first-round pick, gets ice time. As a matter of fact, the Rangers haven’t lost a game in which the Boston College product has participated in.
It’s time for Coach Sullivan to buck the longstanding trend set forth by his predecessors. He needs to facilitate the development of homegrown talent, a department in which the Blueshirts struggled mightily for virtually this entire century, save for the Henrik Lundqvists, Igor Shesterkins, Ryan McDonaghs, and Adam Foxes of the world.
Perreault and Othmann need to be allowed to have failures at times. Hockey is as humbling of a sport as there is, and the only way youngsters burgeon into franchise mainstays is by morphing their shortcomings into triumphs. No more Kappo Kakkos, Filip Chytils, Alexis Lafreniere, or Vitali Kravtsovs.
Mika Zibanejad, Alexis Lafreniere, Vincent Trocheck, J.T. Miller, and Igor Shesterkin have a combined cap hit of $41,075,000. Zibanejad, Lafreniere, Trocheck, and Miller, the captain, have scored 38 total goals, and none of them are close to averaging a point per game.
In fairness to Miller, he sustained a gruesome injury against the Flyers on Saturday, December 20th. The good news for him is that his ailment should not jeopardize his strong chances of playing in the Olympics – more on that later. The fact remains though that Miller needs to return to form as the Hart Trophy candidate he was with the Vancouver Canucks.
Shesterkin became the highest-paid goalie in NHL history a year ago when he inked an eight-year, $92 million contract. Since the beginning of last season, “The Czar” ranks seventh in save percentage, and he’s got more goals saved above expected this season than all but two other goalies. While his numbers are appealing on the surface, Shesterkin’s splits have been tantalizing during this campaign.
The Rangers’ ineptitude in home games has been well-documented, and Shesterkin, for all of his early accomplishments in net, is culpable for the lackluster results on Broadway. In 14 home games, Shesterkin owns a measly .897 save percentage.
Although he’s registered a 6-2-1 mark during this month, December has been the Moscow, Russia native’s worst month of the season. Since Christmastime kicked off at the start of 2025’s final month, Shesterkin owns a .901 save percentage and 2.72 goals against average, both season-lows.
Since Black Friday, Shesterkin has registered a .903 save percentage in 11 games. This is not to suggest he’s been abysmal; in fact, most of his advanced metrics have been superb. Among goalies who have played at least 20 games, “Shesty” ranks fourth in both goals saved above expected and wins above replacement, per MoneyPuck.
At the same time, Shesterkin ranks only 12th in goals against average better than expected. He’s also not making the otherworldly saves that Rangers fans have become accustomed to witnessing, because his high-danger save percentage is .844. While still very good, it’s not quite in the upper echelon of the NHL’s goalies.
The Rangers need Shesterkin to be elite if they are to return to the Stanley Cup Playoffs and pursue their first championship in 32 years.
The Blueshirts have been decimated by injures all season long, and the injured reserve stints have been occupied almost entirely by their most crucial players.
Vincent Trocheck missed 14 games and was on long-term injured reserve because of an upper-body injury he sustained on Oct. 9 against the Buffalo Sabres. Adam Fox was placed on long-term injured reserve at the beginning of December with an upper-body injury. Encouraging developments have followed in the subsequent weeks, as the 2020-21 Norris Trophy winner returned to practice in a non-contact jersey a week before Christmas.
Team captain J.T. Miller, as aforementioned, is week-to-week with an upper-body injury he sustained against the Philadelphia Flyers. The silver lining is that Miller is not on long-term injured reserve.
For whatever preposterous reason, there are some fans who feel that Fox has somehow regressed. Those same fans have a difficult time explaining how Fox ranks sixth among all defensemen in points per 60 minutes this season, or that he’s received Norris Trophy votes for five consecutive seasons.
Once Fox and Miller return, the Rangers can regain the effervescence and star power that the two have in spades. But for the time being, they’ll have to continue to find ways to win without them – although it shouldn’t be much longer.
The Rangers will be the NHL’s best-represented team in the Olympics. Mike Sullivan will be Team U.S.A’s head coach, and Miller, Fox, and Trocheck should still be on the final roster.
NHL players have not participated in the Olympics since 2014, when the winter games were hosted in Sochi, Russia. Although the now-retired T.J. Oshie displayed sensational heroics in a shootout against Russia that year, America’s Team closed the tournament with a fourth-place finish and failed to come home with a medal.
Now is the time. The United States’ best came close in 2002 and 2010, but both of those Olympic campaigns culminated in gold medal game losses to Canada. Mike Eruzione, Jim Craig, Dave Silk, Mark Pavelich, the late Herb Brooks, and the entire country are counting on Team U.S.A. to win gold for the first time since 1980. A second Miracle on Ice won’t be necessary – this will be the most talented American hockey team ever assembled – but the pressure is on Mike Sullivan and Co. to don the gold medal.
Before the season began, Artemi Panarin and Rangers general manager Chris Drury did not reach an agreement on an extension for the pending free agent. It’s now or never to reach a deal, whether via trade or extension, especially with a weakening 2026 free agent class.
Once hailed as hockey’s best-ever free agent class, which still includes Panarin himself, in addition to Connor McDavid, Martin Necas, Kirill Kaprizov, Jack Eichel, Kyle Connor, and Logan Cooley, the quality of the free agent market has dwindled precipitously.
There are still some great players available, to be sure. The Dallas Stars’ Jason Roberton will be a restricted free agent, which means that, while Robertson may sign with a new team, the Stars have a right of first refusal to match an offer. If Dallas does not provide a qualifying offer, then Robertson becomes an unrestricted free agent. Qualifying Offers must be provided to the player by the later of the Monday after the Entry Draft or June 25
There’s also the Utah Mammoth’s Nick Schmaltz and the Buffalo Sabres’ Alex Tuch. After them, the market is very weak, and heavily comprised of old veterans.
At the risk of stating the obvious, the Rangers’ decision with Panarin will hinge on their playoff chances. As of now, New York is right in the middle of the playoff hunt, and they’re just five points behind the Carolina Huricanes for first place in the Metropolitan Division. Even more encouraging is the fact that they’re just three points behind Philadelphia and two points behind their Long Island rival New York Islanders for third place in the division.
At the end of the day, the Rangers have come close to a Stanley Cup Final berth twice with Panarin, but no dice. As far as production goes, there is no question that “Breadman” is the greatest free agent acquisition in franchise history; his 588 points are the fifth-most by any NHL player since 2019-2020, his first season with the team.
A Panarin extension means the Rangers will keep swinging for the fences, and a trade means they’ll acquire draft capital that can revitalize their farm system and give them an influx of young talent. Whatever the decision ends up being, it’ll be one of the most consequential transactions in team history.
Bring home the gold medal, figure out what to do with Panarin, play the youngsters, and get healthy. Those are the New Year’s resolutions for the New York Rangers. The next three months could prove to be franchise-altering.
But for now, fans can only speculate about whether Mike Sullivan and the Rangers can bring home a gold medal and then return stateside for a playoff push.
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