Braden Schneider has become one of the more puzzling names on the New York Rangers’ roster this season, and the confusion starts with how differently he looks depending on the situation. At even strength, the results and the eye test don’t line up cleanly.
On the penalty kill, he can look useful. At 5-on-5, the problems show up fast.
Schneider leads Rangers defensemen with 42 hits and is fourth on the team, and among defensemen, with 23 blocked shots. He’s averaging 18 minutes a night and has two assists this season.
He’s spent most of his time alongside Alberts Smits, who has zero points, before Sean Durzi’s injury pushed Schneider up with Marcus Pettersson. Even with that usage, the larger issue remains the same: Schneider’s play is hard to pin down because the underlying numbers and the on-ice mistakes keep pulling in different directions.
The penalty kill is where Schneider’s profile makes the most sense. His defensive rating on the player card is being lifted heavily by that work, and that part of his game fits.
He’s not a total liability, and he’s basically a better skating Dan Girardi: solid positioning, decent reads in his own zone, and reliable at getting the puck out of danger. On the kill, that’s enough.
He can simplify everything and just clear the zone.
The trouble starts when the game shifts to 5-on-5. The RAPM chart paints a much rougher picture there, especially in terms of limiting chances against.
That split is what makes Schneider so frustrating. If he can survive on the penalty kill, why does the same player struggle so much at even strength?
The answer comes down to what happens when he has the puck in his own end. On the kill, clearing the zone is the job.
At 5-on-5, a glass-and-out play often just hands the puck right back.
That issue has been a familiar one for Rangers fans. It’s the same kind of irritation that used to come with Girardi and Marc Staal.
Schneider can look like he’s handling the moment, then the puck gets on his stick and the panic sets in. His inability to move it cleanly is a real problem, and the numbers reflect that.
He’s second-worst among Rangers defensemen with a 2.7 GA/60. Vlad Gavrikov is worse at 3.17 GA/60, but the deeper numbers tell a different story.
Gavrikov’s individual xGA/60 sits at 2.42, which suggests bad goaltending has played a major role in his actual goals-against rate. Schneider’s 3.15 xGA/60 is also second-worst on the Rangers, and it’s worse than his actual GA/60, which points to goaltending helping him avoid even uglier results. That’s the heart of the matter: Schneider’s puck management is hurting the team, even if the final numbers don’t always look as brutal as the process.
Offensively, though, Schneider is a different kind of mystery. He’s never going to be a point producer, and this season doesn’t change that.
But his offensive play-driving numbers have been good, which is not what you’d expect from a player whose puck handling in his own end can be so shaky. It’s early, but it’s also not completely out of nowhere.
Last season aside, Schneider has usually hovered around replacement-level offensive results, and in this case that actually looks decent next to his 5-on-5 defensive work.
The A3Z player card shows him creating shot attempts in the offensive zone, and the explanation may be simpler than it first appears. Defensemen usually have more time to think when the puck is up high in the offensive zone.
When the cycle shifts and the puck gets to the point, the opposition’s F2 and F3 have to get out toward the blue line, which can give Schneider a little more room to operate. That doesn’t make him some elite offensive thinker.
It just means he has more time to process the play.
That’s the real dividing line here. Schneider isn’t Adam Fox, and he doesn’t make the next move before anyone else sees it.
He’s a player who can be dangerous when he has time, but not when he’s forced to make split-second decisions under pressure in his own zone. At this point, that’s what he is, and the Rangers need to use him accordingly.
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