TARRYTOWN, N.Y. — He hasn’t come out and said it publicly, but Chris Drury has made it clear that he’s unhappy with the New York Rangers roster. He sent a message to other teams in November saying he was open to trading roster players and mentioning captain Jacob Trouba and Chris Kreider, the team’s longest-tenured player, by name.
The team was 12-6-1 at the time of the memo. It is now 17-19-1, well out of a playoff spot. Trouba is gone, traded to Anaheim, and so is 2019 No. 2 pick Kaapo Kakko, who was sent to Seattle last month.
By no indications is Drury done reshaping the roster. One name that has come up recently is Mika Zibanejad, who has been nearly a point-per-game player during his 604-game Rangers tenure but has underperformed this season. He has seven goals, 22 points and is a team-worst minus-22 in 37 games this season. Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman speculated last month that the Rangers might try to make Zibanejad uncomfortable, potentially to the point that he’d be open to the idea of a move. The Athletic reported in November that the Rangers inquired about Vancouver’s J.T. Miller, whose contract has a similar AAV to Zibanejad’s. Friedman said on the 32 Thoughts podcast Friday that he thinks a Miller deal could be done already if Vancouver wanted Zibanejad and both players were willing to waive their trade protections.
Zibanejad said he’s tuned out the chatter.
“I haven’t heard anything,” he said. “I don’t read anything. I don’t listen to anything. It’s noise.”
The 31-year-old Zibanejad has control over his situation. His $8.5 million average annual value contract runs through 2029-30, and he has a full no-movement clause until the last year of his deal. That means he has to approve any trade, plus the Rangers cannot put him on waivers. Drury has used waivers as a tool twice to circumnavigate no-trade lists. He waived Barclay Goodrow over the summer, opening the door for him to be claimed by San Jose, a team on his no-trade list. He threatened to waive Trouba, too, unless the captain accepted a deal with Anaheim.
That possibility is off the table with Zibanejad thanks to his no-movement clause.
“It’s something that was negotiated and earned,” Zibanejad said. “There’s a reason why there are clauses like that. That’s what it is right now. But I don’t think about anything. My focus has always been here. My focus has never been on anything else.
“Of course there are going to be more talks when we’re not winning,” he continued. “And it’s New York, so there’s always going to be extra talk about the situation. That’s nothing new. I’ve been here for quite some time. I know how this goes. I’m just trying to focus on what we have at hand and the games we have this weekend.”
The Rangers play the Capitals on Saturday looking for back-to-back wins for the first time since Nov. 19.
Zibanejad is playing only 18:14 a game, his lowest ice time since 2017-18. He’s averaging only 7.29 shots per 60 minutes, the lowest rate since 2014-15 when he was in Ottawa. Meanwhile, his goals against per 60 rate has spiked. It’s at 4.45, up from his previous career high of 3.63 in 2018-19.
In New York’s 2-1 win Thursday against Boston, Zibanejad looked like the player the Rangers need him to be. He put four shots on net, plus scored a goal by tapping in a Reilly Smith shot that got through goalie Jeremy Swayman. It was his first point since Dec. 11.
First goal of 2025 for the Rangers? Mika Zibanejad 👀 pic.twitter.com/bRgBzLPOSW
— B/R Open Ice (@BR_OpenIce) January 3, 2025
At his best, Zibanejad is a two-way force. He appeared on Selke Trophy ballots each of the past three seasons. Against Boston, his line primarily went against the Bruins’ top trio of Brad Marchand, Elias Lindholm and David Pastrnak. The Rangers controlled play for most of those shifts.
“I like the challenge of playing against those guys, not just playing good defensively but offensively too,” Zibanejad said. “I’ve always said that it’s always a fun challenge going against guys like that, trying to give them as little as possible while you’re creating more. It was a much-needed win.”
Zibanejad has 10 shots in three games since the league’s holiday break. It’s a small sample size but an uptick since the start of the season. Zibanejad said that some of that comes from not passing when he has scoring opportunities. He cited the lead-up to his goal against the Bruins. Before Smith’s shot, Zibanejad put a puck on net, and the rebound kicked to his winger. Peter Laviolette likes his players to have the mindset of delivering pucks to the net, in part because it can lead to teammates getting opportunities or just more offensive-zone time.
For Zibanejad, keeping that mindset is harder while struggling.
“It’s easier to defer to someone else if you don’t feel great about your shot or you (haven’t) scored in a while,” he said. “Especially when you’re playing with two guys who can score, it’s easier for me to defer and try to find them, try to get them in scoring positions. I think that’s very natural.”
But he knows there are benefits to shooting himself rather than facilitating.
“It becomes predictable for the other guys (on a line), too, where to go,” he said. “When you have the shot mindset, when you shoot more, I think it’s going to open up more for the passing lanes. The more you do it because people will think that you were going to shoot and now you have an opportunity to make plays.”
(Photo: Wendell Cruz / Imagn Images)
