Who stood out the most during Rangers 2025-26 season?

Another season of New York Rangers hockey is about to close with one game left and a record of 33-39-9, as of writing this article. This is a year where you don't need to wait for the final whistle to official blow. There have been the usual highs and lows in a losing season for any team, but since the Olympic break there has been a new optimism that has shot into this group with an eye-popping six (seven if you want to include goaltender Dylan Garand) rookies in the current lineup.

Alongside the rookies, multiple veterans have seen an uptick in their own play while others just have continued to stay consistent in their high-play no matter the point in the season. So with the centennial chapter closing in the Blueshirts history books, let's take a look at the best players of this season.

Stars of the Season

Igor Shesterkin

Unsurprisingly, Igor Shesterkin was the Rangers best player throughout this season. During the time of writing this article, Shesterkin has won 25 out of his 51 appearances with a .912 SV% (tied-fourth in the NHL), 35.54 GSAx (fifth), .843 HDSV% (tenth), the best 5v5 SV% in the league, and how about a flair of the dramatic with one fight win this season.

To put into perspective on how good Igor has been for New York, every other goaltender who has appeared in a game for the Rangers only have eight wins in 32 games this season. Shesterkin has been so good in fact that if he did not get hurt vs Utah during January, Igor would undoubtedly be a Vezina candidate right now.

Adam Fox

Alongside Igor Shesterkin for consistently elite, Adam Fox had another fantastic season starring on the Rangers blueline. Despite missing a lot of time due to two separate injuries, Fox is about a point per game with 53 points in 54 games (80 points in an 82 game season) on a team that is currently bottom 10 in the league in scoring goals, sixth among all NHL defensemen in their xGA/60 with an outstanding 2.11 xGA/60, and first among all defensemen in allowing HDCA/60 (high danger scoring chances against); both defensive metrics were among all defensemen who have played a minimum of 500 5v5 minutes.

Also just like Shesterkin, if Fox played the whole season healthy he'd probably be one of, if not the favourite for the Norris trophy right now. With both Fox and Shesterkin missing a massive amount of time due to injury, it really makes you wonder how would the Rangers season look right now if both were fully healthy.

Mika Zibanejad

What a comeback season it has been for Mika Zibanejad; from being crucified by many Ranger fans last year to being the Steven McDonald Extra Effort Award winner for the third time in his career with the Blueshirts, Zibanejad has regained his form and has been the most consistent Ranger. Appearing in all but one game this season, Zibanejad leads the team in points (76 points), goals (33 goals), and second (behind Adam Fox) in assists (43 assists).

Mika also hit the 1,000 game mark in his NHL career alongside breaking the Rangers all time power play goals record which was shared by his great buddy Chris Kreider and the great Camille Henry.

Post-Olympic Breakouts

Alexis Lafrenière

Alexis Lafrenière found a new gear after the Olympic break concluded; getting a new found opportunity with Artemi Panarin no longer with the team, Lafrenière has put together an impressive stretch of games that has seen many put to rest any doubts of his Rangers future. Being at exactly a point per game since the NHL returned, Lafrenière has 24 points and 12 goals both being Top-2 among all Rangers during the past 24 games.

A lot of this success can be pointed towards a few things, such as getting into the high danger areas at a more successful rate, finally getting consistent power play 1 time, and finally (maybe most important of all) his new linemates in Mika Zibanejad and talented rookie Gabe Perreault.

Gabe Perreault

The Rangers' 2023 first-round pick Gabe Perreault is having a solid rookie campaign to say the least, averaging just over a half-point per game and already being one of the better Ranger forwards in generating high danger chances. Among all Rangers players, Perreault is fifth (third among forwards) in generating High Danger chances and his 2.6 xGF/60 is currently fourth (third among forwards).

The chemistry he has built with Zibanejad and Lafrenière in such a short amount of time has given the Rangers and its fanbase something to finally be excited about and his progression as a pro will definitely be one of the headlines as we approach the 2026-27 campaign.

First Year Blueshirt

Vladislav Gavrikov

The expectation when Vladislav Gavrikov signed a big 7-year, $49M contract with the Rangers this past summer is that he and Adam Fox would form a strong top-defensive pairing for New York. So far in year one he has been as advertised and a little bit more on the offensive side of the puck. Gavrikov among all Rangers defensemen is third in xGA/60, second in allowing HDCA/60, and the pairing of he along with Fox rank third among all defensive pairs to play a minimum of 500 5v5 minutes in their xGA/60.

Gavrikov also has scored a career high 14 goals and 34 points this season adding a fine offensive touch that not many would expect him to produce for the team.

Other Notable Surprises

Finally, players like Noah Laba and Tye Kartye were pleasant additions to the lineup; Laba's defensive play as a rookie was the most notable with a 2.58 xGA/60 (sixth among Rangers forwards who have played 500 5v5 minutes) and Tye Kartye only allowing 9.86 HDCA/60 (seventh among Rangers forwards). Both have cemented themselves as players that the Rangers could count on in a bottom-six role for the foreseeable future, which makes building a complete roster that much easier when you don't have to rely on outside free agents.

Hopefully the ping-pong balls swing the Rangers way again on May 5th, and they can be granted either the first or second overall picks to get the honour of selecting Penn State forward Gavin McKenna or Swedish winger Ivar Stenberg to help this re-tool get into full motion.

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