New York Rangers: Predicting next season’s centers

The Rangers best center has blossomed in New York and is a bonafide number one center.

Dynamic players that can swing hockey games by themselves are a rarity in the NHL. They are the players that teams are built around and expected to contribute in big moments. The Rangers have lacked this from the center position for years. They have had very good players at the center position but never anyone elite.

Zibanejad, when healthy, is a game-breaking player. His wicked shot fuels an outright lethal power play when the unit is at full health. The center has a powerful shot from the left circle that gives the Rangers a trigger man that will shoot with authority. As good as he was, Derek Stepan was not a shooter, a player type that the Rangers had a surplus of.

The Swede drives possession on a negative possession team and makes the players around him better. The Kreider, Zibanejad and Pavel Buchnevich line was the team’s best forward group when together. As a unit, they had a Corsi For Percentage of 55.25, the best of any forward group with over 100 minutes together. Without Zibanejad, Buchnevich, and Kreider’s CF% as a tandem drops all the way down to 43.42.

There is no such thing as an untouchable player in an NHL franchise but Zibnejad’s role is set in stone going forward.