For New York Rangers fans, the 2025-26 National Hockey League season promises tons of both change and excitement.
The change — Peter Laviolette is out, Mike Sullivan is in. On Friday, May 2, the Rangers officially replaced their old head coach Laviolette with Sullivan. In Laviolette's final season, the Blueshirts finished with a 39-36-7 overall record en route to missing the NHL postseason playoffs the very year after they won the Presidents' Trophy. It is for this reason that the fans only have next year to look forward to.
This most recent hockey season was both a disappointing and inexcusable showing by the Rangers for the fan base. Here's three players who contributed to that narrative and proved Sullivan should give them a smaller role in 2026.
3. Vincent Trocheck
Throughout the 2024-25 season, Vincent Trocheck unfortunately and arguable had the worst year among the core players on the Rangers' roster.
While its undoubtedly true that he was and is a valuable player. his performance significantly dropped this year. To be more specific, his point production dropped from 77 to 59 and his 5v5 and power-play contributions were weak at best.
2. Carson Soucy
Defenseman Carson Soucy had a bad year for the Blueshirts after making the move over to Madison Square Garden from Vancouver.
He often seemed to be caught out of position in his own end numerous times. In 104:45 of Soucy's ice time without partner Adam Fox, the Rangers held an incredibly weak 36.77 percent of the expected goal share, 44.44 percent of the shot attempt share and a mere 23.68 percent of the high-danger chance share.
Carson Soucy, acquired by NYR, is a stay-at-home defenceman. Big, battles for pucks, solid defensive stick. Not a fast skater and very limited with the puck. Was very effective as a shutdown guy last season, this year not so much. #NYR pic.twitter.com/Z1PeCuWjtL
— JFresh (@JFreshHockey) March 6, 2025
1. Mika Zibanejad
Given the recent news surrounding Mika Zibanejad's best friend and teammate Chris Kreider being traded away to Anaheim, it's hard to kick Zibanejad while he's down; but I'm going to have to.
The 32-year-old was only able to tally 62 points this season, which was a ten point drop from last year. Oftentimes, he appeared uncomfortable with the puck on his stick, leading to rushed decisions that ultimately hurt the team defensively. Additionally — according to Natural Stat Trick, Zibanejad had a 48.67 expected goals percentage, meaning that teams were expected to outscore the Rangers at even strength with him on the ice.
Here's hoping that he's able to rebound next year even without Kreider.