When a team’s ostensible No. 1 center goes scoreless in the first two games of the season and it is largely unnoticed, chances are that that team’s roster is in pretty good shape.
So it is for the New York Rangers, off a 2-0-1 start that included a pair of impressive offensive performances before top pivot Mika Zibanejad finally joined the party in their third game, a 4-1 victory over the Detroit Red Wings on Oct. 14 at Madison Square Garden.
Zibanejad’s one-goal, two-assist performance was hardly one of his best games, his goal being of the empty-net variety, but his effort served as another early indicator that the 2024-25 Rangers have come into this season armed with serious depth throughout their lineup – significantly more than they had during their Presidents Trophy-winning 2023-24 campaign.
The Rangers’ 6-0 demolition of the Pittsburgh Penguins in their opener Oct. 9 stirred the imagination of what it possible for this group, with even-strength goals coming from all four lines. The Blueshirts have scored 15 goals in their three games, highlighting their loaded forward group, and the defense looks similarly stacked thanks to some rising youth that has created serious competition for playing time.
Smith Could Finally Plug RW Hole on Kreider-Zibanejad Line
The Artemi Panarin-Vincent Trocheck-Alexis Lafreniere dynamo of a line has been the least surprising so far, the trio picking up right where they left off from a brilliant 2023-24 debut. Panarin has seven points, Lafreniere has two goals and two assists and Trocheck has recorded a goal and an assist, which on his unit apparently constitutes a “slow” start.
That development was entirely predictable. It’s the other three units up front that should have fans encouraged that this roster might be better positioned to take the next step toward a championship than last season’s team, which set franchise records with 55 wins and 114 points but fell short in the Eastern Conference Final for the second time in three years.
On Zibanejad’s line, Chris Kreider has scored three goals, a burst out of the gate similar last season, when he totaled four goals in the first three games. Unlike last season, though, the two long-time linemates can afford to be cautiously optimistic that they may have finally found the guy at right wing who completes them again.
Veteran Reilly Smith has a goal and an assist through the first three games, and the club’s latest attempt at filling the gaping hole created by the trade of Pavel Buchnevich three-plus years ago could be the one – even if it might only be for one season. The line has posted encouraging underlying numbers so far, outchancing opponents 18-16 and 10-4 in high-danger chances. The trio has an expected goal share of 54.4.
“I thought some shifts, yeah (we were in a flow), but we’re close,” Zibanejad said after his line recorded five points and took its turn leading the Rangers to a strong offensive effort against Detroit. “I think we’re close to clicking.” (From ‘Rangers’ Top Line Finds Its Flow In Authoritative Win Over Red Wings’, New York Post, 10/14/24)
It’s understandable that Zibanejad, who set up Smith’s third-period tally that gave the Rangers a two-goal lead by winning a faceoff, would be a little cautious with yet another new on-ice relationship, with he and Kreider having churned through a seemingly endless list of running mates since Buchnevich’s departure. The few that worked, such as 2022 trade deadline acquisition Frank Vatrano, didn’t last long.
Smith, though, is among the more proven players to have taken a shot at sticking with the BFFs. Having suffered through a down season with Pittsburgh in 2023-24, the Rangers are hoping the 33-year-old can rediscover his 56-point form of 2022-23, achieved with the Vegas Golden Knights. Smith, who the Blueshirts acquired for a pair of draft picks July 1, will be an unrestricted free agent next summer.
“I thought in Pittsburgh (the season opener) that line was really good,” coach Peter Laviolette said ater the win over the Wings. “I thought they played a heck of a game, and tonight they were productive. … It’s nice to see Riley get on the board with a goal and a shot like that. Just get production from different people, so tonight it was them.”
Related: Rangers’ Third Line Could Be Their X-Factor This Season
Laviolette’s team was overly reliant on its top players up front going into last season, and that theme was still in place when they were knocked out by the Florida Panthers in six games of the East Final. After cycling through the likes of Nick Bonino and Tyler Pitlick early and deadline pickups Alex Wennberg and Jack Roslovic late, the coach appears to have a better personnel situation in 2024-25.
Third and Fourth Lines Look Much More Formidable Than Last Season
The halting start by Zibanejad-Smith-Kreider hasn’t been a story because the apparent depth of the bottom six has been. The Rangers’ third line of Will Cuylle, Filip Chytil and Kaapo Kakko – a widely-assumed trio even before training camp started – has lived up to everything Laviolette could have hoped for so far, posting a 69.1 expected goal share and dominating possession and scoring chances. The youthful group – call it Kid Line 2.0, if you must – has combined for five points and given the Rangers a clear matchup advantage when opponents deploy their bottom two forward units.
The keys have been the health of Chytil, the 25-year-old center looking unencumbered by the concussion issues that limited him to 10 regular-season games last season before his return in the playoffs provided an encouraging sign for his career, and the continued rise of Cuylle, the power winger who has followed up his 13-goal rookie season with a goal and and two assists in the first three games. The 22-year-old also had a goal waived off against the Penguins after a review for offsides.
The unit seems in lockstep, the three players’ styles meshing as they’ve found each other with crisp passes while playing a north-south game that’s been leading to the opposing net. The group is averaging more than 10 minutes per game, a number that might increase if Laviolette, who has started to entrust Cuylle with some penalty-killing time and has made clear his desire to heap more responsibility on his younger players, gives them more leash to keep trending upward.
The coach has also made good on his stated goal of developing the Rangers’ youth into key roles when it comes to the fourth line, with hulking winger Adam Edstrom winning a job with a terrific camp. Building on an encouraging 11-game debut last season in which he flashed a myriad of skills uncommon in such a big player, the 6-foot-7, 234-pound Edstrom has looked good, posting a 62.4 expected goal share and even doing well in what he said what was his first fight at any level, scrapping with Utah HC’s Jack McBain in a 5-4 overtime loss Oct. 12.
Edstrom, 24, isn’t the huge young forward who was expected to be the focus of the fourth line going into the season, following the unforgettable emergence of “Rempemania” in 2023-24. Yet Matt Rempe has played only one game so far as Laviolette takes it slowly with the 6-7, 241-pound right wing – perhaps more slowly than many would prefer at this point. With veteran free-agent signing Sam Carrick manning the middle, though, the expectation is that the coach will eventually get Rempe more into the mix to give the Rangers a gargantuan, highly-physical, consequential trio that’s unlike any other fourth line in the league.
This group will have to earn trust from Laviolette. Still, as with the third line, there’s the potential for increase in impact, perhaps significantly so. Edstrom and Carrick, who have played all three games, have posted a 59.5 expected goal share as linemates. Rempe’s impact in such limited minutes last season can’t be ignored, given that the Rangers went 14-2-1 with him in the lineup during the regular season and 8-2-1 in the playoffs – not mention his effect on the personality of the team, which became harder-edged with more swagger with the big guy on the ice.
In Rempe and Edstrom, the Rangers have two giants who are never going to have trouble getting to the opposing goalmouth, giving the Blueshirts a pair of bottom-six lines that specialize in forechecking, playing with grind and attacking the opponents’ crease – desperately-required elements whose absence have held the Rangers back in recent postseasons.
Laviolette’s apparent forward wealth is a far cry from early last season, when bargain-bin signings Pitlick and Bonino joined Barclay Goodrow on a fourth line that was consistently caved in at even strength. The third unit lost its center when Chytil was injured and Trocheck moved up to the second line – and with it, a lack of cohesion and production cascaded through the bottom six.
Mancini’s Emergence Has Beefed up Defense
The Rangers’ young 2024-25 upside isn’t limited to the forwards. No story that came out of camp was bigger than the eye-opening effort of Victor Mancini, the 6-3, 215-pound right-shot defenseman who looked to have caught the organization’s attention as part of the future, then did more than enough to end up on the opening-night roster with the injury to Ryan Lindgren, and now might just stay even after Lindgren returns, which is expected to be soon.
Mancini, a 2022 fifth-round pick out of Nebraska-Omaha, got the nod for Lindgren’s spot despite forcing fellow righty Braden Schneider to move to the left side, the 22-year-old being just too impressive to not make the team. With Schneider handling his off side well for now, it’s possible Lindgren’s return will come on the third pair, bumping another rising youngster, Zac Jones, to the press box. Jones has looked good as well in the first three games after taking a leap last season in 31 contests, but the Rangers’ depth of personnel might force strong options such as Jones out of the lineup – the kind of problem every coach wants to have.
With Mancini in the mix, the Blueshirts’ defense is bigger and tougher, something that has become a necessity for success in the NHL playoffs nowadays, and, as mentioned earlier, has been lacking in recent years for the Rangers. Whether Mancini stays in for the long haul or not, he and Jones, the speedy offensive-minded blueliner, have fortified a deep pool of defensive options for Laviolette that will surely be needed for the Blueshirts to make another run at the Stanley Cup. It’s worth noting that Chad Ruhwedel, the veteran right-sider who the Rangers acquired at the deadline last season and who looked like a smart one-year re-signing in the offseason to provide depth, doesn’t appear to have a path to get into a game at this point, given the variety of choices Laviolette has to man the blue line.
The best part for these Rangers isn’t just that they’re getting bigger contributions from throughout the lineup, unlike last season’s top-heavy squad. It’s that those contributions could increase, perhaps substantially. Chytil was coming off a breakout season before he got so early in 2023-24. Cuylle looks to be steadily improving, Kakko should be better after his own injury-marred season and Edstrom and Rempe are perhaps only scratching the surface of their potential. Mancini looks like a keeper who could profoundly impact the makeup and attitude of the Rangers’ defense, and Jones’ big step forward last season suggests he’ll keep growing if given more consistent ice time.
The Rangers posted the best record in the NHL last season despite having only a handful of their top players deliver career seasons. That they overcame a lack of quality roster-wide depth to pile up 114 points was a considerable achievement, but it caught up to them in the playoffs. Barring injury, this group might be much better-equipped for a run at the Cup, one less reliant on career-best performances from Panarin (120 points) or Trocheck (77).
The goal won’t be to post the best record again this season, but to find the six more playoff victories that eluded them in 2022 and 2024. With a theoretically deeper and more dangerous roster – and perhaps, more postseason-ready – than the one that was nonetheless so good last season, they might just have the chance to do so.
