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Rangers Fall to Jets, Garand Debut, M1KA

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The New York Rangers lost 3-2 in a shootout to the Jets on Sunday in Dylan Garand‘s debut. Garand more than acquitted himself well in the defeat, stopping 35 of 37 shots, showing strong positional play between the pipes, and earning additional time in net. Tonight, New York faces Ottawa at home with Mika Zibanejad slated to play his 1,000th NHL contest.

Game recap:

Rangers lines vs. Jets:

Perreault-Zibanejad-Lafrenière
Kartye-Miller-Sheary
Cuylle-Trocheck-Raddysh
Brodzinski-Edström-Chmelař

Gavrikov-Fox
Robertson-Schneider
Mackey-Borgen

Garand
Shesterkin

Scratches: Quick (upper-body injury), Laba (lower-body injury), Vaakanainen (upper-body injury), Iorio, Pärssinen
IR: Rempe (thumb injury)

Garand NHL debut!

A few thoughts:

1) Garand, a fourth-round pick (103rd overall in 2020), was promoted a few times for depth but had not seen any game action. He found out on Wednesday that he would be in goal Sunday, giving the nerves three-plus days to either settle or ratchet up. Garand showed no signs of nervousness or being awed in the moment, looking strong throughout the game. 

With the team playing out the string, Garand should be provided a substantial number of starts down the stretch to see if he is up to possibly being the second goalie next season. Garand made several top-shelf saves in the game, stopping a few breakaways while displaying solid side-to-side movement in net. His lateral movement was better than advertised.

2) Tye Kartye – the claiming of Kartye has been one of the better moves made by GM Chris Drury. Beyond the scoring, he has brought a physical presence and some speed to the third line. Most importantly, I love that he immediately came to Conor Sheary’s defense.

3) Zibanejad reached several milestones with his power-play tally Sunday. The marker was Zibanejad’s 280th career goal with the Rangers, tying Adam Graves for fourth in franchise history; Rod Gilbert leads with 406. In addition, Zibanejad reached the 30-goal mark for the fourth time in his career, all coming with New York. Today, Zib skates in his 1,000th career contest, he has 344 goals and 463 assists in 999 games.

After a brutal season-plus, Zibanejad raised his game this season. He has been one of the few Rangers providing a reasonable effort in 2024-25. After falling from 91 to 72 points in 2023-24, Zib’s production dropped to 62 points, which isn’t an accurate representation of just how poorly he played last season. Zibanejad came out with renewed effort this season, reflected in his output: 30 goals and 37 assists in 69 appearances. 

Enjoy the day Mike, you deserve it.

4) Drew Fortescue, whose BC season ended, signed his ELC over the weekend. Fortescue, whom the Rangers selected with the No. 90 overall pick in the 2023 NHL Draft, is a stay-at-home defenseman. He had four goals, 14 points and 47 PIM in 35 outings with Boston College in 2025-26. The 20-year-old is a potential third-pairing defenseman who needs to become quicker and stronger while also improving on his angle play. Fortescue should see action before the end of the season.

5) Scott Wheeler is posting his prospect rankings to the Athletic: Rangers are ranked 18th with Gabe Perreault their top prospect and Liam Greentree second. New York needs an uplift in talent to raise its place in the league.

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  • March 28, 2026 at 2:46 pm #68962
    aecliptic
    Participant

    If Fox, in his heart, love the Rangers as he does than he will see this through. Should the Rangers end up drafting Verhoeff, they have his replacement. Lets look at it hypothetically, specifically on defense. Lets say the Rangers draft Verhoeff, then they make a 1 for 1 hockey trade of Schneider for Lohrei. The defense shapes out…

    Gavrikov/Fox – we already know these 2 have good chemistry, theyre solid together, complement each other very well.
    Lohrei/Verhoeff – pair of the future, as the top 2 age, these 2 move up.
    Robertson/Borgen – solid third pair.

    One pick and one tweak, and that D looks actually quite decent.

    Outside of 13, 93, 94… the forward group is kind of a hot mess. I would consider selling high on Kartye if someone threw an offer at us.

    March 28, 2026 at 2:22 pm #68960
    Brukie
    Participant
    aecliptic wrote:

    The thing is, by trading Trocheck for more futures, theres really nothing Drury can do to retool this team properly without mortgaging the future. Which would be a wildly egregious error to not bank on this draft and the 2027 draft, which some say is supposed to be even better than 2026. Good thing we traded the 2027 2nd round pick to the Pens for Reilly Smith.

    They could find themselves with three 1sts in this draft (we already have 2), or three 1sts in next years draft if they do things right. But drafting 5-6 first rounders in this and next years draft puts them like 3 years away. Timeline wise it does workout great because it will sync to when certain players’ contracts will be expiring. However this is not how things were advertised based on the letter. Which is concerning because I would much prefer that than whatever he is doing now. Just tell me were gonna suck for a couple years as we clean up the roster and rebuild through the draft. Atleast I know what to expect.

    So true on that part also. So we move forward with the team we have minus Trocheck or are we going to hope Mika plays next year as he has and Miller finds his form? Those 2 will be the last remaining of the forward holdovers.

    What happens with Fox? Will he be sticking around? No way we would be able to move Igor. Contract is way too much.

    March 28, 2026 at 1:00 pm #68950
    aecliptic
    Participant

    The thing is, by trading Trocheck for more futures, theres really nothing Drury can do to retool this team properly without mortgaging the future. Which would be a wildly egregious error to not bank on this draft and the 2027 draft, which some say is supposed to be even better than 2026. Good thing we traded the 2027 2nd round pick to the Pens for Reilly Smith.

    They could find themselves with three 1sts in this draft (we already have 2), or three 1sts in next years draft if they do things right. But drafting 5-6 first rounders in this and next years draft puts them like 3 years away. Timeline wise it does workout great because it will sync to when certain players’ contracts will be expiring. However this is not how things were advertised based on the letter. Which is concerning because I would much prefer that than whatever he is doing now. Just tell me were gonna suck for a couple years as we clean up the roster and rebuild through the draft. Atleast I know what to expect.

    March 28, 2026 at 12:44 pm #68949
    aecliptic
    Participant
    Brukie wrote:
    aecliptic wrote:

    Gotta say… I kinda like the Cuylle, Trocheck, Sykora line.

    Chmelar looks pretty good too, Ive said before he kinda reminds me of Julien Gauthier with his size and ability to use it to get to the net.

    Trocheck is most likely a goner this summer.

    What is the trade value of a soon to be 33yo 50 point guy?

    Honestly, not much less, if still equal as it was at this deadline… and what I mean by equal is what other GMs were willing to give up, not the price that Drury was asking. So its still a 1st, maybe a mid-pick and a prospect. Hes still the same player, hes not injury prone, contract is still the same with excellent term. Nothing would have changed from the deadline to July.

    March 28, 2026 at 11:55 am #68947
    Brukie
    Participant
    aecliptic wrote:

    Gotta say… I kinda like the Cuylle, Trocheck, Sykora line.

    Chmelar looks pretty good too, Ive said before he kinda reminds me of Julien Gauthier with his size and ability to use it to get to the net.

    Trocheck is most likely a goner this summer.

    What is the trade value of a soon to be 33yo 50 point guy?

    March 28, 2026 at 10:58 am #68932
    aecliptic
    Participant

    Gotta say… I kinda like the Cuylle, Trocheck, Sykora line.

    Chmelar looks pretty good too, Ive said before he kinda reminds me of Julien Gauthier with his size and ability to use it to get to the net.

    March 28, 2026 at 7:57 am #68904
    Brukie
    Participant
    picklerick wrote:
    Brukie wrote:

    Coner Sheary on PP2? Team is really flawed when you do that.

    where have you been? It’s been like that since panarin was traded

    With all these kids up and “playing for the future” I would have hoped he wouldnt be getting such important minutes especially in a game we are up in. My bad.

    March 27, 2026 at 9:59 pm #68898
    picklerick
    Participant
    Brukie wrote:

    Coner Sheary on PP2? Team is really flawed when you do that.

    where have you been? It’s been like that since panarin was traded

    • This reply was modified 3 months ago by picklerick.
    March 27, 2026 at 9:31 pm #68896
    Brukie
    Participant

    Coner Sheary on PP2? Team is really flawed when you do that.

    March 27, 2026 at 5:17 pm #68892
    Tonybere
    Participant
    aecliptic wrote:
    Tonybere wrote:

    Exactly what I said about Kreids before the season. A move for the sake of making a move.
    As for the unsuccessful tank, I feel good about the way Zib, Laffy, Gabe and Laba are playing. Id rather they grow and gain confidence than continue to wallow.
    At the end the day, I try to remember that when we won the lottery for Laf, we won our last game of the season and changed for percentages, but still hit!!

    I would argue the tank has been going quite well since Miller returned to the lineup.

    You’re right there!
    It’s rather incredible, really. JT doesn’t seem to be able to make a single successful play. Not a shot, a pass, a hit, a pinch, a chip, nothing. It seems every time he’s on the ice, we lose possession without a chance to show for the previous line’s efforts.

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