Rangers prospect Gabe Perreault earns the ultimate praise with a Nikita Kucherov comparison

Gabe Perreault has done some amazing things in his career in hockey thus far, and during a recent podcast going over Scott Wheeler of The Athletic's top prospects list, he received the ultimate compliment by being compared to Nikita Kucherov. This wasn't a universal take, as other analysts likened him to some lesser players, but the debate raises an important question regarding what his immediate and long-term potential could look like

Could Perreault be as good as Nikita Kucherov?

To set the scene, the section on Perreault started off with Corey Pronman throwing some cold water on Perreault as a prospect describing him as this "slow 5'11" winger" and essentially making the argument that best case scenario for him is Lucas Raymond, and later on likening him to Matias Maccelli.

To that Wheeler pushed back stating that "Gabe Perreault is the all-time single-season points record holder at the NTDP still stands. He had a 60-point college season, he has pointed in the AHL, he made a ton of plays on that Rangers team towards the end of the season. There were some ups and downs for him at the NHL level. He was a driver on a terrible AHL team offensively, and late in the year, he was a driver... say what you will about the team, he was still a driver on an NHL team."

He later went on to speak to Perreault as being one of the smartest and most inteligent players in the league, and someone who should be a 60 to 70 point player. Pronman's issue with Perreault is his skating, and to that end, suggesting that you are basically hoping he can be like Jonathan Marchessault.

That's where things got pretty good, and Chris Peters came out swinging with facts. He was bold enough to bring up Kucherov, someone who has been pretty, pretty good for the Tampa Bay Lightning, and boy would the Rangers be in an amazing spot if Perreault were even 60 percent of Kucherov.

Peters made the case by going back to Kucherov's rookie year, and looking at where he was and what he has since become.

When it came to Perreault vs. Kucherov, Peters pointed out, "Let's go back in time, if you will, to 2013-14 with the Tampa Bay Lightning. Nikita Kucherov: 18 points in 52 games. 18 points in 52 games. Gabe Perreault, arguably, was a more impactful rookie than Nikita Kucherov was. I don't think he's going to be Kucherov-level points, I'm not going to say that, I'm not saying that. He is one of the most intelligent players on this list right here. I think he has among the best hockey sense offensively of any player here."

For those keeping score at home finished his rookie season with 12 goals, 15 assists, and 27 points in 49 games averaging 15:59 per game. In fairness, Kucherov averaged just 13:07 his rookie year, but Tampa increased his minutes the following year to 14:57 per game and he finished with 65 points. The year after that he jumped to 18:13 and had 66 points (not as impressive in context), but the year after that he made his mark with 85 points while averaging 19:26 per night.

We've also seen what Kucherov has done since, and that includes two Hart trophies as league MVP, two Stanley Cups, three Art Ross trophies as the league's leading scorer, and 1,124 points in 879 regular season games to go along with 177 points in 159 playoff games.

Kucherov was not a first round pick like Perreault, he went 58th overall in the second round of the 2011 draft, and his rise to stardom came completely out of nowhere. That said, he did have some help adjusting to the league, and Peters pointed out he joined an elite team that had Steven Stamkos and Victor Hedman among others. This is not to say he's simply a byproduct of who he's played with, but it is easier to establish yourself as a pro and get to the point that he did because he was under significantly less pressure.

Perreault's body of work is more impressive than most realize

Perreault had an elite body of work that resulted in him getting drafted in the first round, and his dominance before turning pro suggests that there's no reason why he can't reach heights that have been accomplished by his USA Hockey contemporaries. Had he been a few inches taller, there's a good chance he would have been a lottery pick during his draft year.

Before turning pro, the former Eagle skated in 73 NCAA games and scored 35 goals while adding 73 assists for 108 points which made him one of the most productive players in college hockey in recent memory. His 2022-23 season with the U.S. National U18 team saw him post a line of 53 goals, 79 assists, and 132 points in 63 games, and that has him ahead of elite names include Auston Matthews, Jack Hughes, Clayton Keller, Patrick Kane, Cole Caufield, and former linemate Will Smith. That he followed up his USNDTP season with a 60 point season at Boston College just reinforces how good of a prospect he was, and why him developing into an elite NHL player isn't something that should be out of the question.

The most encouraging part of Peters' case for Perreault was that he's always been high on him as a prospect, and he's feeling even better after seeing what he accomplished this year on a very bad Rangers team.

Peters explained, "I think he can play top-line minutes. And I think that this is, this is one where I was less convinced of that before this season. The games that I watched of him with the Rangers late in the year, I was like, okay, it's going to work. It's not only going to work, it's probably going to work really well."

To that point, it became clear as the season went on that Perreault was learning as he went, and that's something Mike Sullivan pointed out toward the end of the season.

Rangers should be encouraged by Perreault and it is good that his future is still unwritten

For some people reading this, what I am about to say is going to be pretty dated. When thinking about Perreault and his future, Natasha Bedingfield comes to mind, specifically her 2004 hit Unwritten. In that song Bedingfield exclaims,

"Live your life with arms wide open
Today is where your book begins
The rest is still unwritten"

For Perreault and the Rangers, the 2026-27 season is going to be a fresh start of sorts. A new book beings and what happens next is still unwritten. There's a lot to like about Perreault and his potential as a top line option and prospect. The important thing to remember is that Alexis Lafrenière was another can't miss prospect, one that went first overall, and the Rangers are still waiting for him to pop. The ending of this most recent season was a positive development on that front, but the jury is still out.

While it is encouraging and exciting to see Perreault drawing some elite praise, fans should just be excited to see him take the ice this season as an established NHL player. He entered the offseason knowing he had to prepare to be a full time pro, and that should put him in a better position entering this season than he ended it. A prepared and motivated Perreault can help the Rangers in their post Letter 2.0 turnaround, and if he's able to come anywhere close to Kucherov at some point in his career... that would be an amazing overall win.

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