This was expected to be a bit of a rebuilding season for the New York Rangers, and they wouldn’t make the playoffs as things stand – but they are right there. Let’s take a closer look at their season along with NHL Odds and Stanley Cup Odds.
New York Rangers 2020 NHL Season Analysis
Season Recap
The Blueshirts had 79 points when the season was suspended, but that was just two shy of tying for the final Wild-Cards spots in the East. The Rangers already had surpassed last season’s point total and had 37 wins in 2019-20, after 32 last year.
New York was struggling when the season was suspended, losing five of seven. Its final game was a 3-2 overtime loss in Colorado on March 11. The Rangers at least gained a point on Carolina and Columbus in the chase for the two wild card spots in the Eastern Conference.
Mika Zibanejad scored his 41st goal, Pavel Buchnevich also scored while Adam Fox had two assists. Alexandar Georgiev had 25 saves, for New York. With Georgiev on the bench for an extra skater Buchnevich’s 16th goal of the season tied it with 13 seconds left. Buchnevich was on a seven-game point streak. He 16 goals and 46 points in 68 games in 2019-20.
Zibanejad scored his 40th goal the previous game and became the fastest player in the history of the Rangers to reach the 40-goal plateau, doing so in 56. He also became the first player in Rangers’ history to score a goal in 12 out of 13 games. In that span, Zibanejad has netted 17 goals. His 28 goals since Christmas lead the NHL; Alex Ovechkin is next with 25.
“It’s so much fun to watch a player grow, and he continues to grow, day in and day out,” Coach David Quinn said. Zibanejad has returned to Sweden during the shutdown.
Winger Filip Chytil made great progress in 2019-20. Chytil has a personal best 14 goals to go along with 23 points in 60 games. He stepped up when Zibanejad was injured earlier this season. Adam Fox is just the fifth blueliner in Rangers history to post 40 points in his rookie season (Leetch, Ruotsalainen, Greschner, McEwen). Fox has the fourth-most points and third-most assists out of any NHL rookie.
This offseason, the Rangers gave Artemi Panarin a monster seven-year, $81.5 million contract but the Breadman has largely been worth it with 32 goals and 95 points. He’s tied with David Pastrnak for third place in the league in points.
One of the Rangers’ biggest questions this summer will be whether to sign Tony DeAngelo to a bridge contract or lock him up long term. DeAngelo has emerged as a force offensively with 15 goals and 53 points in 68 contests in 2019-20, but he’s had consistency issues on the defensive side of things. He’s still just 24.
On the flip side, winger Brendan Lemieux was having a disappointing season and actually will be suspended for an amount of games TBA for a hit on Colorado’s Joonas Donskoi. The sentence will be set when the NHL establishes its guidelines for resuming the season. Lemieux is considered a repeat offender after having been suspended two games with Winnipeg for elbowing Vincent Trocheck in the head in a game in Helsinki on Nov. 2, 2018. Lemieux has just six goals and 12 assists with a 42.2 percent Corsi rating. He has been on the ice 19 goals for and 30 against at full strength.
Highly touted rookie Kaapo Kakko had an uneven season. The No. 2 overall pick in the 2019 NHL Entry Draft was on for 40 goals-against at five-on-five, second most to Buchnevich’s 44 among New York forwards. However, Buchnevich played 170 more minutes than Kakko. In addition, Buchnevich was on for 54 Rangers goals, a plus-10 while Kakko was on for 16 goals for and was a minus-24. The Rangers have had 15 Finnish-born players throughout their history, but Kakko was the lone Finn on the squad this season.
New York Rangers odds to win Stanley Cup
The Blueshirts are +5000 to win their fifth Cup and first since that memorable 1994 run.
