The power play has been a staple of this iteration of the New York Rangers, with critics even calling them "power play merchants." Over the last three seasons, teams across the NHL have done their best to stay out of the penalty box to avoid facing the Rangers’ lethal power play. However, this year has been the exact opposite. The Rangers’ power play has gone from a major strength to a glaring weakness.
With the same players and the same coaches, the question remains what happened?
Over the last three seasons, the Rangers' power play was one of the best in the entire NHL. In 2021-22, their power play ranked 4th in the league, operating at a 25.23% success rate. The following season, in 2022-23, the Rangers’ power play ranked 7th, converting at 24.08%. Then, last year, the Presidents' Trophy-winning New York Rangers had the 3rd-best power play in the NHL, scoring at an impressive 26.42% clip.
Now, in the 2024-25 season, with only eight games left, the Rangers' power play has plummeted to 27th in the league, converting at just 17.71%. There was no gradual decline this drop-off seemingly came out of nowhere. Over the past four years, the unit has remained almost identical, featuring staples such as Artemi Panarin, Adam Fox, Chris Kreider, and Mika Zibanejad. For the first of those seasons, Ryan Strome was on the top unit, with Vincent Trocheck taking his place for the last three.
With the Rangers power play near the bottom of the league it has been of major factors of why this team has had such a disappointing season and are fighting for their playoff lives with just over 2 weeks left in the 2024-25 regular season. Their overall scoring has taken a massive hit with the power play's abysmal performance. Over the last 22 games the Rangers have 60 power play opportunities and have only 5 goals in that span to show for it. That is only a 8.33%, dreadfully right. Also over their last 26 opportunities they have just 1 power play goal and over their last 41 opportunities they have 2 power play goals. These are numbers that you expect from the worst teams in the NHL, not the New York Rangers.