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 Djurgardens Under-18 and Under-20 teams before making his debut in the Swedish Elite League in 2010-11, scoring five goals and 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 Djurgardens Under-18 and Under-20 teams before making his debut in the Swedish Elite League in 2010-11, scoring five goals and nine points in 26 games.
Zibanejad signed with the Senators on July 13, 2011, had an assist in 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 played nine games before being sent to Djurgardens 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 final. The championship was Sweden's first at the World Juniors in 31 years.
Zibanejad started the 2012-13 season with Binghamton, the Senators' affiliate in the American Hockey League. He was called up 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 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 46 points (20 goals, 26 assists) in 80 games.
Zibanejad scored 14 goals in 2016-17 when missed 25 games with a broken fibula but rebounded with 27 goals in 2017-18 and 30 in 2018-19.
On March 5, 2020, Zibanejad scored five goals for the Rangers, including the winner 33 seconds into overtime, in a 6-5 victory against the Washington Capitals.
Zibanejad had three assists, including his 500th NHL point, when the Rangers defeated the Pittsburgh Penguins 5-1 at Madison Square Garden on March 25, 2022.
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.
