Mika Zibanejad faced a ton of scrutiny last season for a poor start to the season, and many fans were down on a player that the New York Rangers are essentially stuck with. The end of the alternate captain's season should ease the concerns of all parties involved.
Zibanejad remains one of the greatest Rangers in recent history, and there's every reason to believe he can still be a productive player, but he enters the season with something to prove. Furthermore, assuming he will play out most of his remaining contract, Zibanejad has a chance of climbing the franchise leaderboard in a few categories which is a goal that can drive him to keep up his play from the second half of last season. His position change puts him a position to be productive enough to accomplish that, and it's good to see that the Rangers aren't eager to put him back at center.
Zibanejad will get a chance to stay at wing to start season
The hiring of Mike Sullivan to run the bench led to speculation as to where Zibanejad could play to start the 2025-26 season, and for now he will remain on the wing, and the Rangers are right to keep him there. Per Dan Rosen of NHL dot com:
"Coach Mike Sullivan said Zibanejad told him during their time together in Sweden that he felt he was beginning to establish chemistry playing on Miller's right late last season, saying he felt they complimented each other well.
'As part of that conversation one of the things he expressed to me is even though he lined up on the wing on the face-offs, he felt they were interchangeable in the sense that they could read off each other. They both have a comfort level playing down low in the defensive zone. They both have a comfort level in the face-off circle with one being a righty and one being a lefty. He expressed that to me. I would envision us exploring that combination to see if they can potentially build on the chemistry that they've already built.'"
Zibanejad on the wing gives Rangers two dangerous lines
As things stand, Zibanejad will skate on the right wing with J.T. Miller at center, and Will Cuylle on the left flank. It is a line that worked last year, and one that rightly should stay together at least to start this season. In 129 minutes together it posted a 49.33 GF%, a 54.44 CF%, and a 52.95 xGF% per Evolving-Hockey which is pretty solid in a short sample while the group was still developing chemistry.
Keeping that line together means a line of Artemi Panarin, Vincent Trocheck, and Alexis Lafreniere will round out the top six, and it is what makes the most sense for a Rangers team that needs to score goals. This threesome logged 667 minutes together last season and had a slash line that include a 56.58 GF%, a 55.94 CF%, and a 51.99 xGF% also per Evolving-Hockey. And the year before that the trio posted a cool 58.03 GF%, 58.24 CF%, and a 54.86 xGF% in 864 minutes together at 5v5.
But this story is about Zibanejad, specifically him on the wing, so let's get back to what he did last year following a mid-season position change.
Zibanejad was a completely different player after Miller rejoined team
Miller re-joined the Rangers for a matinee contest against the Boston Bruins and score twice in a 6-3 loss, and Zibanejad assisted on his second goal of the game. This was the start of an upswing for Zibanejad which saw him end the season with 11 goals and 22 assists for 33 points in 32 games. In that stretch he posted a 57.31 GF%, a 51.21 CF%, and a 49.22 xGF%. In the 50 games prior to that, Zibanejad had a 36.42 GF%, a 46.43 CF%, and a 47.44 xGF%.
Zibanejad's raw totals put's him at a 28-56-84 pace across 82 games, and that is the type of production fans and the team would love to have. In some ways Zibanejad became a victim of his own success, and had the "misfortune" of posting back to back career years at age 28 and 29, and fans just expected that level of production to continue. The odds of that happening where low, when you take into consideration skater aging curves, and in some ways his decline in production is normal.
The 62 points in 82 games aren't what fans are accustomed to, and there was noticeable noise about that while he was in the throes of his biggest struggles. That quieted down from February on, and it will be interesting to see if the uptick Zibanejad experienced to end the season gets him back to just under a point per game production.
As goes Zibanejad, so too could go the Rangers
This season Zibanejad will have a chance to play his 1,000 career game, and thus far he's sitting with a line of 314 goals, 426 assists, and 740 points in 930 games. That equates to 0.79 points per game which makes Zibanejad a very successful NHL player. If the Rangers want to rebound from the disaster that was last season, and Zibanejad needs to be a big part of that.
He's been so integral to what has made the team successful in recent years, and it is hard to imagine the team being successful if Zibanejad reverts to being a passenger. There's reason for fans to be hopeful, and Zibanejad lining up at wing will be one of the most watched storylines early on in the 2025-26 season.