If the Rangers end up selling ahead of the trade deadline, the rest of their season would become about what’s next — about their young players trying to stick, about whether expanded roles after roster turnover could lead to increased production.
And for one night, buried in an embarrassing 8-4 loss to the Senators, the Blueshirts received a glimpse of that potential. Gabe Perreault, their 20-year-old winger, recorded the second and third tallies of his NHL career for his first multi-goal game after joining a line with Mika Zibanejad and J.T. Miller. Additionally, rookie center Noah Laba collected his sixth goal of the season.
It’ll take more than one game for this production to become a normal part of the Rangers, for these flashes to become sustained.
But for an organization that has struggled to turn prospects into NHL constants, it marked an encouraging sign amid a sinking season.
“A little bit,” Perreault said when asked if the young forwards scoring was encouraging. “I mean, like I said, it’s obviously tough right now. Things aren’t going well. But we gotta find a way to get through this and get a win.”
Before the Ottawa game, head coach Mike Sullivan said he’d been reluctant to break up Artemi Panarin and Zibanejad due to the offensive chances they’ve been able to produce, but it didn’t take long for that to change — given how the Vincent Trocheck-Miller combo had struggled across the past few games — and for Perreault to be included.
His first goal materialized when a long breakout pass from goaltender Spencer Martin eventually found Perreault’s stick, and after a give-and-go with Miller in the Ottawa zone, he tucked a puck past Leevi Meriläinen.
Then, later in the third period, Perreault took a pass from Zibanejad on a 2-on-1, veered toward the crease and managed to score while tripping over Meriläinen.
It flashed some of what the Rangers envisioned when they took him No. 23 overall in the 2023 draft, with Perreault then signing his entry-level deal last spring and getting a five-game taste of the NHL before starting the 2025-26 campaign in Hartford.
He opened the season on a tear and collected 17 points across his first 20 AHL games, and Perreault now has seven points in 15 games with the Blueshirts during his different call-ups.
For Laba, centering their third line, it marked his first goal since absorbing a Tom Wilson hit during the Rangers’ loss to the Capitals on Dec. 31 and missing the next three games with an upper-body injury.
“I thought the line played well from the time we made the switch,” Sullivan said of the Perreault line. “… I just thought given the way the start of the game was that I needed to try to effect some positive change.”
With an assist on Alexis Lafrenière’s goal Wednesday, Panarin extended his assist streak to eight games — which marks the longest active one in the NHL, according to the team. He has collected 13 points, including two goals, across that stretch. … Zibanejad’s pair of assists against the Senators brought his point streak to seven games.
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
