Zibanejad arrives full circle for 1,000th game when Rangers host Senators

GREENBURGH, N.Y. -- Mika Zibanejad quickly looked up when he was talking in the New York Rangers dressing room after practice Saturday. He saw a handful players who weren't yet 10 years old when he played his first NHL game.

It was Oct. 7, 2011. Zibanejad, then 18 and with the Ottawa Senators, the team that selected him with the No. 6 pick in the 2011 NHL Draft, had an assist and played 13 minutes in a 5-3 loss to the Detroit Red Wings.

"I don't feel old, but I definitely feel experienced," Zibanejad told NHL.com. "I've been around for some time now."

Long enough to hit a major milestone. 

Zibanejad, who turns 33 on April 18, will play his 1,000th NHL regular-season game Monday, when, of all teams, the Senators, are in town to face the Rangers at Madison Square Garden (7:30 p.m. ET; NHLN, MSG, Prime, RDS).

"It's the team that got me my first chance to be in the NHL and believed in me a lot," Zibanejad said of the Senators. "To be able to do it against them, it feels like a full circle moment. If I could have asked or even thought about picking a team to do it against, that would be the team."

Zibanejad will have more than 20 family members and friends in the building, many of whom traveled from Sweden to be there for his milestone game. 

They were also at the Garden when the Rangers lost to the Winnipeg Jets 3-2 in a shootout Sunday, which ironically would have been Zibanejad's 1,000th game had he not been scratched against the Anaheim Ducks on Dec. 15 for missing a team meeting because he was stuck in traffic.

Teammates now joke with him that he did it on purpose just so 1,000 could come against Ottawa.

"I guess it was fate," Zibanejad said, laughing. "I guess the traffic was there for me for that reason."

He will become the second player from the 2011 draft class to play 1,000 games after Edmonton Oilers forward Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, the No. 1 pick, reached the milestone on Jan. 18. He'll also become the 22nd Sweden-born player in NHL history to do so. Defenseman Adam Larsson will become the 23rd when the Seattle Kraken visit the Florida Panthers on Tuesday.

"It's for sure humbling," Zibanejad said. "Like, I couldn't even dream of this. I didn't know this was a possibility, honestly, when I was younger. I didn't even think about the NHL in that sense. I thought always the closest I would be to be a pro (was) on 'NHL 12' or 'NHL 14'. 

"It's hard to put into words what it will mean to me when it happens."

Zibanejad played his first five seasons in the NHL with the Senators from 2011-16. He had 151 points (64 goals, 87 assists) in 281 games, topping out at 51 points (21 goals, 30 assists) in 81 games in 2015-16.

His fate took a turn when he was traded to the Rangers on July 18, 2016, with Ottawa's second-round pick in the 2018 NHL Draft for center Derick Brassard and the Rangers' seventh-round pick in 2018.

"I think everything happens for a reason," Zibanejad said. "There's always a plan." 

Zibanejad has since become one of the most decorated players in Rangers history, moving into the top 10 in team history in 10 different offensive statistical categories across his 718 games.

He scored his 280th goal Sunday to tie Adam Graves for fourth. He's ninth in assists (376), seventh in points (656), first in power-play goals (122), third in power-play points (243), tied for fourth in short-handed goals (14), second in short-handed points (33), first in overtime goals (eight), seventh in game-winning goals (38) and eighth in shots on goal (2,003).

Zibanejad is also third in assists (38) and sixth in points (55) in Rangers Stanley Cup Playoff history. He helped them reach the Eastern Conference Final in 2022 and 2024.

"He's just one of the better players in the organization's history," Rangers forward J.T. Miller said. "His stuff on the power play, the way he plays the game, some of the special nights he's had, really memorable. Just his commitment, how much he loves the game and how much puts into the game, how much thought and how cerebral he is, I look up to him."

Miller is one of many.

Will Cuylle, who was 9 years old when Zibanejad made his NHL debut, labeled the center as "a quiet leader who is always ready to work hard and an easy guy to talk to."

Zibanejad will never be confused with the loudest guy in the room, but he regularly pulls the young players aside to talk to them, pump them up and provide insight.

"To have an older guy like that that you're able to talk to personally like that and get to know on a personal level, it's really cool," Cuylle said.

Rangers coach Mike Sullivan said he's learned about the game from the private conversations he's had with Zibanejad this season.

"I think he likes to talk hockey," Sullivan said. "He likes to think about the game. He's a student of the game in a lot of ways. And he has real good insights."

Beyond the numbers and the impact on and off the ice around the Rangers, Zibanejad has embedded himself in the New York lifestyle. He lives in Manhattan and is raising a family with his wife, Irma.

"I don't know if I would be the player I am today and the person I am today if that (trade to New York) didn't happen, so I'm thankful that it happened," Zibanejad said. "I look back and I'm extremely happy for my time there (in Ottawa), but I'm so happy that this happened that I got to come here and play here and play here for as long as I have. There's nothing better."