Gabe Perreault keeps giving the Rangers reasons to believe, even if not everyone is buying in.
The New York forward prospect is a major piece of what the club hopes to build after Letter 2.0, and most people around the league seem to treat him that way. But The Athletic’s NHL Pipeline Rankings for 2026 put a different spin on the conversation, slotting Perreault at No. 6 behind Cole Beaudoin, Liam Greentree, Nathan Aspinall, and Malcolm Spence.
One analyst remains unconvinced, pointing to the same two knocks that always seem to follow him around: “the issues on Perreault’s game are his 5-foot-11 frame and his below-average foot speed. I have concerns about his long-term projection unless the offense is so off-the-charts good, which I’m on the fence about whether it will be or not.”
That skepticism comes after a rookie season that looked pretty good by any reasonable standard.
Perreault began the year in the AHL, where he played well enough to earn a call to the Rangers. His first NHL stint didn’t go smoothly, and he was sent back to Hartford to keep working.
When he returned, though, he stayed put. By the end of the season, he had 12 goals and 15 assists for 27 points in 49 games, a pace that works out to 45 points over an 82-game schedule.
For a 20-year-old, that’s a strong first step, even if it didn’t win over everybody.
The underlying numbers back up the case that he held his own. According to Evolving-Hockey, Perreault finished with a 52.25 GF%, a 47.05 CF%, a 48.79 xGF%, and 3.8 GAR.
Compared with former Boston College teammate Will Smith, who had 45 points in 74 games for the Sharks in his rookie season and posted a 48.33 GF%, a 45.2 CF%, a 42.88 xGF%, and a 0.4 GAR, Perreault comes out ahead in impact. The GAR edge matters here, especially since he did it in fewer games and brought more defensive value to the table without giving up his offense.
That Boston College connection is part of why some analysts have wondered whether Perreault was riding shotgun with Smith and, to a degree, Ryan Leonard. Leonard’s rookie year with the Capitals produced 45 points in 75 games, plus a 61 GF%, a 45.92 CF%, a 45.16 xGF%, and a 7.6 GAR. The debate over which of the three turns out best is still open, but Perreault has done plenty to keep himself in that conversation.
And this isn’t a prospect whose résumé begins and ends with one NHL season. He played 73 NCAA games and put up 35 goals and 73 assists for 108 points.
Before that, he was a force with the U.S. National U18 team, piling up 53 goals, 79 assists, and 132 points in 63 games in a single season - a total that put him ahead of names like Auston Matthews, Jack Hughes, Clayton Keller, Patrick Kane, Cole Caufield, and Smith.
So yes, there are legitimate questions about his ceiling. But there’s also a pretty clear pattern here: Perreault has kept answering them.
The latest ranking may not be shocking, but the tone around him still feels off. He’s not guaranteed to become a top-six star, but placing older players with less of a track record ahead of him is a hard sell.
The safer bet is that Perreault keeps making people revisit that skepticism. He’s been doubted before, and it seems like he uses it as fuel. With a likely top-line role coming this season, it may not take long for this latest take to age badly.
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