Rangers vs. Penguins: Pregame Notes
By
New York Rangers
RANGERS RUNDOWN
The New York Rangers are kicking off their Centennial Year in 2025-26 at home against the Pittsburgh Penguins (8:00 PM ET-TV: ESPN - Radio: ESPN 880 AM).
All time in season openers, the Blueshirts are 42-42-13-1, including wins in four of their last five.
The 2024-25 campaign began with a 6-0 win over the Penguins at home, the sixth shutout in a season-opening game for the Rangers in franchise history and first time since 1956.
This is the fourth time, and second back-to-back, that New York will open a regular season against the Penguins (2024-25 at MSG, 2009-10 at Mellon Arena, 1987-88 at MSG).
Against the Penguins since 2021-22, the Blueshirts are 10-4-1 in 15 regular season games and have victories in three of their last five games against Pittsburgh.
Mika Zibanejad has 14 points (5G-9A) in nine career season-opening games for the Rangers, making him one of six players in franchise history to record at least 10 career points in season openers. Only three players have netted more goals for the franchise in season-opening games: Butch Keeling (7 in 10 GP), Jean Ratelle (6 in 11 GP), Cecil Dillon (6 in 8 GP).
Artemi Panarin has points in four of his last five games against Pittsburgh (2G-5A).
The Rangers have points in four-straight home openers (2-0-2) and five of their last six home openers (3-1-2).
New York has a new head coach as Mike Sullivan was named the 38th Head Coach on May 2. Sullivan has returned to the Blueshirts after serving as an assistant coach from 2009-10 and 2012-13, and was originally drafted by the Rangers in the fourth round, 69th overall, of the 1987 NHL Entry Draft. He is joined by Assistant Coaches David Quinn, Joe Sacco and Ty Hennes.
RANGERS AND PENGUINS CONNECTIONS
Rangers head coach Mike Sullivan was the Penguins’ head coach from Dec. 2015 – Apr. 2025. Sullivan was elevated from Wilkes-Barre/Scranton of the AHL to be Pittsburgh’s head coach in December of 2015 and went on to lead the team to back-to-back Stanley Cup Championships in 2016 and 2017. Sullivan’s 409 wins with Pittsburgh make him the Penguins all-time wins leader.
Rangers assistant coach David Quinn was an assistant coach under Sullivan’s staff in Pittsburgh during the 2024-25 campaign.
Rangers assistant coach Ty Hennes was a member of the Penguins staff in various roles from 2018-19 to 2024-25.
Rangers forward Vincent Trocheck is a native of Pittsburgh, growing up in Upper St. Clair. He and J.T. Miller played for the Pittsburgh Hornets youth team growing up.
Rangers forward Conor Sheary spent parts of four seasons with the Penguins and won back-to-back Stanley Cups with the team in 2017 and 2018.
Penguins head coach Dan Muse served as an assistant coach for the Rangers from 2023-24 - 2024-25.
Penguins forward Kevin Hayes spent the first five seasons of his career in New York, tallying 216 points (87G-129A) in 361 games.
TEAM NOTES
PRESEASON IN THE REARVIEW, RANGERS IN DRIVE
New York went 2-3-1 in the preseason, including wins against the Devils and Islanders.
Noah Laba was awarded the 2025 Lars-Erik Sjoberg award, presented annually since 1988 to the top rookie in camp as selected by the media.
MILLER TIME
J.T. Miller was named the 29th captain in franchise history on Sept. 16, 2025.
Since Miller’s Rangers debut on Feb. 1, 2025, his 12 multi-point games were tied for the second most in the NHL and and among Blueshirts, he ranked second in goals (13) and points (34), and tied for first in assists (21). His 76 hits ranked third on the team since his acquisition.
He is the only player in the NHL since the 2021-22 season to have recorded 300 or more points, as well as 700 or more hits. In that same time frame, he is one of 18 skaters to have three or more 50-plus assist seasons, and his 354 points are ranked 12th most in the NHL.
In 2024-25, among all NHL players who took 1,000 or more faceoffs in 2024-25, he tied for third in faceoff percentage (58.2) and reached his second highest faceoff percentage in a season since the start of his career.
FORECHECK, BACKCHECK, TROCHECK
In 2024-25, Vincent Trocheck led the NHL in faceoff percentage (59.3) and his 910 overall faceoff wins ranked third in the league among skaters who’ve taken 1,000 or more faceoffs.
Since 1997-98, his 910 faceoff wins were ranked third most among Rangers skaters for a single season since 1997-98. He became the first Ranger to take at least 13 faceoffs in a game and win every single one of them since the NHL began tracking.
Trocheck’s six shorthanded goals last season tied for the second most in a single season by a Ranger in history (tied with Cecil Dillon, Theo Fleury leads with seven) and shared the league lead for the most among all NHL skaters.
Last season, he notched his seventh 20-goal season of his career and ranked second in goals (25), fifth in assists (33) and fifth in points (58) on the Blueshirts. His 200 shots were the second most on the team.
BREAD WINNER
Artemi Panarin secured his fifth 80-point season with New York in 2024-25, tying Mark Messier for the most in team history, and his fifth 50-assist season, surpassing Messier and Rod Gilbert for the second most in franchise history.
He is the only active undrafted player with 300 career goals.
He notched his fifth career 30-goal season, and second consecutive during the 2024-25 season. He is the first Ranger since Jaromir Jagr (2005-07) with 30-plus goals and 40-plus assists in back-to-back seasons. His 30-goal seasons are tied for 11th in the NHL since 2015-16.
Last season, Panarin ranked first in goals (37), assists (52), points (89), power play goals (8), power play points (25) and shots (235) among Rangers skaters, and had at least one point in 57 of his 79 games (72.2%).
Since 2023-24, his 209 points (86G-123A) rank sixth in the NHL. In that same time frame, he has points in 124 of 161 games, the third most in the NHL.
Going back further, among NHL skaters since his debut in 2015-16, he ranks fourth in assists (568) and fifth in points (870).
FANTASTIC MR. FOX
This season, Adam Fox will be raising money towards the Tackle ALS organization to help the Sean M. Healey & AMG Center for ALS at Massachusetts General Hospital develop therapies that repair or reverse damage caused by ALS and ultimately prevent the disease entirely. For every goal he scores, he will be donating $1,023 to Tackle ALS and for every assist, he will be donating $523. Fox welcomes all Rangers fans to join him in supporting the cause. For more information about Tackle ALS and how you can help, including making a donation, please visit https://tackleals.com/.
Fox became the ninth different defenseman in NHL history to record four consecutive 50-assist seasons in 2024-25 and became one of eight defensemen in Rangers history to record four or more seasons with 10 or more goals.
His 51 assists last season ranked second among the Blueshirts and tied for sixth among NHL defensemen. His four three-point games tied for third and his 17 multi-point games tied for eighth among NHL blueliners.
He notched his 300th career assist on Mar. 20 vs. TOR and became the fourth defenseman in Rangers history to reach the milestone.
TOO COOL
Will Cuylle’s 301 hits in 2024-25 ranked fifth most in the NHL and surpassed Ryan Callahan (285) for the most hits among Rangers in a single season since the NHL began tracking in 2005-06.
