The New York Rangers close out the 2025-26 season in Tampa against the Lightning. Tampa may start ex-New York farmhand Brandon Halvorsen in a game that could decide home ice advantage versus Montreal in the first round. The Blueshirts will start Dylan Garard between the pipes with only lottery balls really at stake as they conclude a disappointing season. Info regarding the top 25 question solicitations and mock draft is provided below again. Please respond in the comments.
Rangers lines and D pairs at morning skate in Tampa:
Perreault-Zibanejad-Lafrenière
Kartye-Miller-Sheary
Cuylle-Trocheck-Chmelař
Sýkora-Laba-Raddysh
Gavrikov-Fox
Fortescue-Schneider
Robertson-Borgen
Garard
Shesterkin
A few thoughts:
1) Rangers and team beat writers release awards: These awards are an annual tradition, and little surprise exists that Mika Zibanejad was voted MVP by the media and players. Zib has been by far the team’s most consistent and best overall player, especially with Artemi Panarin now in LA and adam Fox missing 20+ games due to injury.,
MVP (media): Mika Zibanejad
Players’ Player (player voted): Mika Zibanejad
Good Guy (media): Braden Schneider.
Good Guy is for “outstanding cooperation with the media throughout the season.”
2) Questions: As noted above, this offseason, once again, has more questions than answers as of this moment. I plan to again compile the top 20 to 25 questions we will address during what will be a very long offseason. As part of that endeavor, I will again ask for your assistance in providing any questions you have. I will group some of those questions together thematically while others may just be one-offs. I’m happy to address more than 25 questions if necessary, as I presume most of you agree this extended offseason is critical for the team’s future and determining how long the “retool” lasts.
Please provide your questions as a comment. Send to me directly as a message or by email or text or twitter etc. Thanks in advance for your help.
3) Ping-pong balls and draft: New York controls its draft odds. A regulation loss allows the team to remain in its current spot. With a regulation win or an overtime/shootout loss by the Rangers, the Flames will need a similar result tomorrow. Here are the draft odds scenarios for tonight:
– New York and Flames both win, Rangers get 3rd best odds, pick no lower than 5th
– New York and Flames both lose, Rangers get 3rd best odds, pick no lower than 5th
– NYR win Flames lose, Rangers get 4th best odds, pick no lower than 6th
In conjunction with the upcoming draft, because New York has two picks high in the draft and because they are not in the postseason, I was thinking of running a reader selected mock draft with the readers picking a team to make the pick. I will provide more information down the road, but that all depends if we get enough interest.
Please let me know if you have any interest in taking a team in the mock draft.
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