Although Mats Zuccarello has been on the New York Rangers for quite some time now, it’s hard to understand his style of play relative to other players in the league.
Mats Zuccarello is often one of the bright spots on the New York Rangers. His smaller stature, smooth skating, and great play-making skills make him one of the most exciting and fun players to watch while he’s on the ice. This combination of skills has allowed him to lead the team in points four of the past five seasons.
However, this season could be the most unpredictable one he has had in quite some time. For the first time in his eight seasons with the Rangers, they are in “rebuild” mode rather than “win-now” mode.
Zuccarello has appeared in six different playoff seasons, collecting 60 postseason matches to add to his 463 regular season games. He has received a total of 116 Lady Byng votes over two seasons (2015-2016 and 2016-2017) and 29 Selke votes during one season (2015-2016).
This season, he led the team in points with 53, assists with 37, and overtime goals with two. He was fifth on the team in goals with 16, ninth in power play goals with one, second in power play goals with 17, sixth in game-winning goals with three, and third in shots with 178.
But, by the time next season starts, he will be 31 years old, and the team will be rebuilding for the first time in his career. As he gets older and the team around him becomes less experienced, fans must adjust their expectations for Mats Zuccarello’s point totals.
To try to project how he will do this year, we used Hockey Reference‘s “Similarity Scores” feature to see which NHL players’ production numbers are the closest to that of the Oslo, Norway, native.