All the arrows point upward for Zibanejad, a Swedish center who was selected by the Ottawa Senators with the sixth pick in the 2011 NHL Draft and traded to the New York Rangers on July 18, 2016.
The native of Huddinge, Sweden, played on Djurgarden's under-18 and under-20 teams before making his debut in the Swedish Elite League in 2010-11, scoring five goals and finishing with nine points in 26 games.
All the arrows point upward for Zibanejad, a Swedish center who was selected by the Ottawa Senators with the sixth pick in the 2011 NHL Draft and traded to the New York Rangers on July 18, 2016.
The native of Huddinge, Sweden, played on Djurgarden's under-18 and under-20 teams before making his debut in the Swedish Elite League in 2010-11, scoring five goals and finishing with nine points in 26 games.
Zibanejad signed with the Senators on July 13, 2011, made his NHL debut with Ottawa on Oct. 7, 2011, and became the youngest player in franchise history and youngest player from Sweden (18 years, 172 days) to skate in an NHL game. He had one assist in nine games before being sent to Djurgarden for the rest of the season. That freed him to play in the 2012 World Junior Championship, where he scored in overtime to give Sweden a 1-0 victory against Russia in the gold medal game. The championship was Sweden's first at the World Juniors in 31 years.
With NHL players locked out, Zibanejad started the 2012-13 season with Binghamton, the Senators' affiliate in the American Hockey League. He was called up by the Senators after the season began in January and scored his first NHL goal on Jan. 30, 2013 against the Montreal Canadiens. Zibanejad finished with seven goals and 20 points in 42 games.
Though Zibanejad started the 2013-14 season with Binghamton, he was there for just six games before being recalled to Ottawa on Oct. 23, 2013. He appeared in his 100th NHL game on Feb. 8, 2014 against the Boston Bruins and finished with 16 goals and 33 points in 69 games.
Zibanejad reached the 20-goal mark for the first time in his NHL career in 2014-15, finishing with 20 goals and 46 points in 80 games. He got his 100th NHL point on April 7, 2015 against the Pittsburgh Penguins and appeared in his 200th game four days later against the Philadelphia Flyers.
NOTES & TRANSACTIONS
- Traded to NY Rangers by Ottawa with Ottawa's 2nd round pick in 2018 NHL Draft for Derick Brassard and NY Rangers' 7th round pick in 2018 NHL Draft, July 18, 2016.
