The Rangers going from Presidents’ Trophy winners to a borderline sideshow was more than enough cause for concern this season.
In evaluating the on-ice analytics completely separate from everything else that factored into this lost 2024-25 campaign, however, the level of concern is only amplified.
So much so that it paints a dire picture of how much work president and general manager Chris Drury has to do this offseason to restore the Blueshirts as a Stanley Cup contender.
The Post’s Mollie Walker identifies three of the most concerning statistics from the season.
1. 17.6 power-play percentage
Finishing the season ranked 28th in the NHL, the Rangers power play was shockingly bad. When you consider how crucial it’s been to the team’s success in recent years, watching players who used to automatically find the net struggle to even hold the zone was glaring.
The power play has become more and more predictable for opponents as the years have gone on, but the threat to score was rarely there to begin with.
The fact that they drew the eighth-fewest power-play opportunities (210) is a testament to how little the Rangers had the puck during five-on-five play. The seven shorthanded goals they gave up were also tied for the fourth most in the league.
After such little personnel movement the past few years, head coach Peter Laviolette made several changes to both units over the course of the season to try to get it going. Still, the top unit almost always started.
Additionally, of the seven 5v3 opportunities they earned, the Rangers capitalized on just two of them.
2. Five goals or more allowed a staggering 23 times
For the numbers people out there, the Rangers allowed five goals or more in approximately 28.05 percent of the 82-game season. There are several other stats that explain why this was the case, but only those who watched the Blueshirts closely this season know that they don’t tell the whole story.
The Rangers buckled in the face of adversity this season. No, they folded. There were so many games that got so out of hand because if one thing went wrong, the entire team would simply shut down. They lost their resilience, and as a result, scores were run up on them on several occasions.
Tied for the fifth-most shots against per game (29.9), the Rangers also finished the season with the fifth-highest expected-goals-against per 60 (2.75).
3. Each of their top six scorers from last season — Artemi Panarin, Vincent Trocheck, Adam Fox, Mika Zibanejad and Alexis Lafrenière — finished with AT LEAST 10 points less.
Zibanejad may have only gone from 72 points to 62, but the Swedish center took a dramatic dip defensively and was one of the team’s least effective skaters for a good portion of the season. Fox may have only experienced a 12-point dip in two more games, but their top two-way defenseman didn’t score his first non-empty-net goal until Jan. 9, and hasn’t been the same since his knee injuries from 2023-24.
The most drastic drop-off belonged to Kreider, who posted 45 fewer points this season in 14 fewer games due to injuries and one healthy scratch. He recorded a mere three primary assists and just seven five-on-five goals.
Trocheck experienced an 18-point regression, while Lafrenière went from 57 to 45 points after signing a seven year, $52.15 million contract extension. The Rangers needed a lot more from Trocheck, who didn’t play with the bite that made the club want to sign him in the first place.
The 12-point difference in Lafrenière’s past two seasons may not seem like much, but the 2020 first-overall pick all but disappeared after he signed his extension on Oct. 25.
Panarin was the Rangers’ leading producer for a sixth straight season, but went from a career high of 120 points to just 89.