With the 2024-25 season right around the corner, many players on the New York Rangers are close to reaching new career milestones. With this in mind, here are just four of those players that will likely hit those milestones during this season or at least, get very close to doing so.
Mika Zibanejad
Despite a drop in his offensive numbers last season, Mika Zibanejad has been quite the offensive force during his first eight seasons with the Rangers. Now entering his ninth season with the team, he is very close and will hit a bunch of new milestones if he can stay healthy this season. First, he has the chance of reaching 900 games played in the NHL, as he currently sits at 848. He has missed just two games over the past three seasons so he will likely surpass 900 and if he can play the entire season, he will sit at 930 career games played.
Now for his offensive milestones, there are plenty of which he can surpass this season. First, he is only six goals away from 300 career goals and this could get done within the first month of the season if he has a hot start to the year. Next, he needs just 16 assists to surpass 400 in his career and the big one for him is he can reach 700 career points if he gets at least 22 this season. Zibanejad will be reaching many milestones if all goes well for him in 2024-25.
Jonathan Quick
One of the biggest surprises last season for the Rangers was the play of Jonathan Quick. When it looked like his career was coming to an end, he had an incredible season backing up Igor Shesterkin. Now, after earning a one-year extension, he has the chance to hit some big milestones playing for his childhood team. He is 20 games away from playing in his 800th career game. If and when he plays in that 800th game, he will become the 17th goalie ever to play in at least 800.
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The biggest milestone Quick can reach this season is getting his 400th career win. He needs just seven wins this season to achieve this mark and after winning 18 games for the Rangers last season, it seems as if this will become a reality at some point during this season. Quick can become only the 15th goalie in NHL history to win 400 games. If he can play as well this season as he did last, these milestones will be reached fairly quickly.
Chris Kreider
When all is said and done, Chris Kreider’s No. 20 will be in the rafters at Madison Square Garden as he is one of the best players to ever be drafted by the organization. He is a rare homegrown talent that has blossomed into a star for the Rangers. Now, playing in his 13th season with the team, he can reach some pretty cool milestones this season. If he plays all 82 games, he will have the sixth most games played in franchise history. He has missed just four games over the past three seasons so this has a great chance of happening if all goes well for Kreider.
Looking at offensive milestones, he can become the second-highest goal scorer in franchise history if he can score at least 32 goals. He has scored over 30 in the past three seasons and if can do that again, he will be behind only Rod Gilbert on the all-time goal-scoring list for the Rangers. If he can score six power-play goals this season, he will pass Camille Henry and sit in first place as the all-time franchise leader in power-play goals.
Alexis Lafreniere
Last season was a true breakout for Alexis Lafreniere and now, he will look to build off of that this season and has the chance to reach some career milestones as well. When the second game of the season comes around, he will have played in his 300th career game and would have turned 23 years old the day before. It is crazy to think that he has already played so many games with the Rangers and now, he is turning into the player they hoped he could be when they drafted him first overall in 2020.
He needs 25 goals to reach 100 career goals and 27 assists for 100 career assists. If he can have a season in which he has exactly these numbers, he will have also reached his 200th career point. Now, while the Rangers hope he can achieve more than these numbers this season, it can still be a season full of milestones as Lafreniere enters his fifth season with the team.
While these aren’t all the players that can hit milestones for the Rangers this season, these are four of the most important. They all have their roles to play in helping this team win a Stanley Cup and if they can have some personal success along the way, it will taste even sweeter if they can win it all at the end of the year.
