During the stretch after Adam Fox first returned from long-term injured reserve following the Olympic break, head coach Mike Sullivan was controlled when asked about the Rangers’ star defenseman.
His production, Sullivan said March 18, was getting better. Fox, he added, was building his game again. The ceiling for a point-per-game, Norris Trophy-winning member of the blue line had already been established, but Sullivan acknowledged it would take time for Fox to return to that point due to his extended absences this season.
But Wednesday night, from the bowels of the Garden during his postgame press conference, Sullivan didn’t hesitate when asked about Fox, who’d just recorded a multipoint game for the third consecutive match. His goal and assist against the Sabres gave Fox 15 points in his past eight games, 24 in his past 22 and 52 in the 52 contests he has skated in this season.
“Well, I think he’s captured his game that he started the season with,” Sullivan said.
There’s no question the Rangers are a better team with Fox in the lineup, but with the offseason lingering after a three-game road trip to close the season, the future of the defenseman remains one of their most pressing questions. His cryptic comments from late February, when asked about whether he wants to remain with the Blueshirts through their retool, still loom. And that remains their dilemma: Fox, in the most injury-plagued season of his career, has once again shown his peak value, but what happens if he wants out?
“When you miss a stretch of time, it could take a little bit,” Fox said after Wednesday’s game when asked about his eight-game point streak, “but I think over the last month or so, I feel really good about my game.”
The uncertainty with Fox stemmed from an answer following the Rangers’ Feb. 26 game against the Flyers when, after another loss in his first game back from injury, Fox fielded a question about his thoughts on The Letter 2.0 — which president and general manager Chris Drury dropped during his time on long-term injured reserve.
Fox said he felt “a little helpless” after seeing the public commitment for a retool, but when asked if he wanted to remain with the Rangers through this next stage, Fox, in part, said, “I think that’s a conversation when we’re done playing games.”
In a normal Rangers season, there wouldn’t even be a doubt about Fox’s future with the team. He’s a Long Island native who never masked his desires — or dreams — to play on Broadway. He’s a defenseman regarded as one of the top power-play quarterbacks in the league. His contract lasts through the end of the 2028-29 season, and the Blueshirts’ top priority last offseason involved signing left-handed defenseman Vladislav Gavrikov to pair with Fox.
And the benefits of having Fox in the lineup have once again become apparent. The Rangers have collected the most power-play goals in the NHL since Feb. 28 (20) — a stretch beginning the game after Fox returned — and are tied for the league lead in power-play percentage (33.3) since that juncture, according to the team. They have the No. 3 power play this year after watching their constant strength crater to the No. 28-ranked unit in 2024-25.
“He obviously is an elite player offensively,” Sullivan said of Fox. “He sees it so well. The poise he has with the puck. He drives offense in so many ways.”
The Rangers didn’t have that luxury for a chunk of their season. Fox skated in just three games between Nov. 29 and Feb. 26, with a pair of stints on long-term injured reserve surrounding the midseason break — the Olympics that Fox wasn’t selected to participate in for Team USA — to create the prolonged absence. He’d never played in fewer than 70 games across a full 82-game campaign. This year, if he appears in all of the Rangers’ remaining games, he’ll log just 55.
But after recording just 61 points in 74 games last season, Fox has again matched the production level that made him an annual part of the Norris conversation. If there were concerns about injuries contributing to a production drop-off, he eliminated those worries. The Rangers, though, still need to figure out if they can depend on it for next season.
Even a vintage production tear from Fox isn’t enough to change that reality.
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
