At the turn of this new year, it seemed as if the New York Rangers were inching closer and closer to a full on rebuild. Dead last in the Metro Division at the end of 2024, and yet now, they have rebounded to a 5th place spot, just outside playoff wild card territory, thanks to a 6-1-3 record in their last 10 games. And there's still 3 months of regular season hockey to be played. So even with most of their season less than ideal from a fan standpoint, the Rangers still have some fight left in them. Question is, who's been delivering the most fight for the team?
1. Igor Shesterkin
The Rangers would not have made it to the ECF last season without their stellar goaltending. The record 8 year extension for the 29-year-old Russian netminder was just the tip of an iceberg that lingered through most of the first half of the 2024/25 season. Would Igor get extended or not, and would whatever extension that was offered to him satisfy him? It seemed until the deal finally went through that an agreement would've never been reached.
Lucikly, one was, and despite the Rangers' late 2024 slumps, Shesterkin is still logging impressive numbers, holding a 15-15-2 record with a .910 save percentage across all 32 games he's started. Now it's just a matter of whether or not he can replicate his win-loss numbers from previous seasons, since 15 losses is about where he checked out last season and in 2022/23 for that matter.
2. Artemi Panarin
Panarin's bread basket may not be as full this season as it was in 2023/24, a stellar campaign of nearly 50 goals and 71 assists for 120 points, but his 19 goals and 29 assists for 48 points at the time of writing are impressive in their own right. And the Breadman is still the Rangers' top offensive player with those numbers, far ahead of D Adam Fox and C Vincent Trocheck.
Panarin's importance is that he's one of 6 of the Rangers' top 10 pointscorers this season that has goals in the double digits, the others being Trocheck and fellow C Filip Chytil, and LWs Alexis Lafreniere, Will Cuylle, and Chris Kreider. Even in an off year, and Panarin has experienced that with the Rangers before, notably in 2020/21 (17 goals, 41 assists for 58 points in 44 games), the Breadman can still deliver, albeit with some slightly cooler buns.
3. Will Cuylle
Last season was the first for rookie C Cuylle, and this season has been as good as that first, if not better. Cuylle has 12 goals and 13 assists for 25 points this season and has splendidly turned it around after being the lone star on a struggling New York team early this season. After being a 3rd line occasional player for the Rangers in his rookie season that saw the 22-year-old Toronto native total 13 goals and 8 assists in all but 1 regular season game, Cuylle has matched his debut numbers this season as mentioned above.
He's also gotten considerably more ice time since joining the Rangers' secondary offensive line alongside veteran stars like Mika Zibanejad and newcomer Reilly Smith. If Cuylle reaches that all important 20 goals mark this season, think of just how good he could be next season with that level of motivation.
Other improving players for the Rangers include Filip Chytil, despite missing more than a few games this season with a couple of different injuries and D Adam Fox, who is still providing the much needed defense the Rangers so desparately need for their postseason push. Whether or not this team continues to trend upwards like they've certainly been doing in their last 10 games and makes the playoffs remains to be seen. They could even come up just short of making the postseason and it'd still be a good rebound in some people's eyes.