Mika Zibanejad’s season has turned into a strange kind of warning sign for the Rangers: the production is still there in pieces, but the shot volume has vanished.
Through 19 games, the 33-year-old center has only three goals, a pace of 0.16 per game that stands as the lowest scoring rate of his 16-year NHL career. The only other time he came close to that level was his rookie season with Ottawa in 2012-13, when he posted 0.17 goals per game. Every other year since then, he has been at least at 0.23 per game, and his peak remains that explosive 0.72 mark from his 41-goal season in 2019-20.
The assists tell a different story. Zibanejad has 13 of them, which is a career-high 0.68 assists per game rate.
So this isn’t a case of a player disappearing altogether. But for a forward whose identity has long been built around finishing chances, the bigger issue is that he is simply not firing enough pucks at the net.
That drop shows up immediately in the shot totals. Across his Rangers career, Zibanejad has averaged 2.76 shots per game, well above the 2.10 he carried in Ottawa. This season, though, that number has fallen to a career-low 1.84 shots per game, down from 2.65 per game in 2025-26.
The season-by-season numbers make the decline hard to miss:
Season
Games
Goals
Shots
Shots Per Game
2016-17
56
14
119
2.13
2017-18
72
27
212
2.94
2018-19
82
30
236
2.88
2019-20
57
41
208
3.65
2020-21
56
24
171
3.05
2021-22
81
29
219
2.70
2022-23
82
39
251
3.06
2023-24
81
26
221
2.73
2024-25
82
20
183
2.23
2025-26
81
34
215
2.65
2026-27
19
3
35
1.84
Zibanejad’s game has clearly shifted over time, and his playmaking has become a bigger part of the package. Alexis Lafrenière has shown that a top-line winger can still produce while sharing ice with him, putting up nine goals, nine assists and 18 points in 19 games to lead the Rangers in goals and sit second in scoring.
Even with that evolution, Zibanejad’s numbers still matter. His 13 assists rank second on the team, and his 16 points put him third. He’s still helping drive offense, but the Rangers are getting a less dangerous version of him when it comes to pure shot creation.
There’s also been some bad fortune mixed in. Zibanejad has one goal at 5v5, one on the power play and one shorthanded.
That’s a strange split for the franchise’s all-time power-play goal leader, with 125 career PPGs after passing Camille Henry and Chris Kreider. Some early-season chemistry issues are natural with a new-look top unit, but the numbers still point to a player who has not found his usual rhythm.
The passing game around him hasn’t helped matters either. Zibanejad has had Lafrenière and Gabe Perreault feeding him at even strength, and yet the Rangers’ tendency to search for the perfect play has worked against him more than for him. It’s an odd development for a player who still owns a heavy shot.
NHL EDGE data backs that up. Zibanejad’s hardest shot this season has been 93.34 MPH, which puts him in the 97th percentile. That is down from last year’s 96.39 MPH, a mark that placed him in the 98th percentile, but it remains elite by league standards.
As the Rangers head into game 20 of an 84-game schedule, they are approaching the quarter mark of the season. Zibanejad still carries strong underlying 5v5 numbers, including a 52.37 GF%, a 46.41 CF% and a 55.02 xGF%.
The issue isn’t that he’s been ineffective overall. It’s that by pulling back as a shooter, he’s made New York easier to read.
For the Rangers, the fix may be as simple as getting him to let it rip more often.
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