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.
And sure, this most recent hockey season was both a disappointing and inexcusable showing by the Rangers for the fan base. But, it did have its upsides.
Here's four players who served as some of the lone highlights and proved Sullivan should give them a bigger role in 2026.
4. Will Cuylle
Our reporter Hannah Eng rightfully gave left wing Will Cuylle the Most Improved player award in Blue Line Station's report card series. This was for good reason.
Cuylle had 20 goals this season, up from 13 the previous season. That’s over 53% more than last year. Additionally, he led the team with a total of 301 hits for the season. This pairs well with the fact that fans also saw Cuylle get his hands dirty by winning fights to keep things interesting.
The good news? He's only 23-years-old. Cuylle thus plenty of time to get even better, proving he deserves more than this year's TOI average of 15:05 per game.
3. Matt Rempe
The Alberta, Canada native always brought energy and made a positive impact when he was on the ice. 22-year-old enforcer Matt Rempe's significant improvements this year earned him a regular spot in the New York lineup and helped him gain more confidence. He demonstrated a better understanding of his role, focusing on specific aspects of his game and became more reliable in both offense and defense.
He finished the year with eight points (five assists, three goals) across 42 games played.
It's also clear that Rempe wants the opportunity to keep improving, should Sullivan (rightfully) give him that opportunity next year.
"I think I improved a lot, especially from last year," Rempe said on Exit Day. "From the beginning of the season to the end, I think a lot of development happened. My game got a lot better. I still got a lot of work to do. I still want to work on all parts of my game. I made big strides from last year, so that was good."
2. Jonathan Quick
Jonathan Quick really kept the Rangers in the conversation this year when they really had no business being there. This year Quick was named the fourth Mr. Ranger award winner in addition to taking home his 400th career victory, giving him the most by an American-born goaltender. Quick also became the 17th goaltender in NHL history to appear in 800 career games, and the second U.S.-born goalie to do so.
By the end of the year, his stat line was 11 wins, three shutouts and a .893 save percentage across 24 games played.
Hot take – but next year it'd be nice to see Quick get the nod over starting netminder Igor Shesterkin.