The New York Rangers left Ontario with plenty to chew on after dropping both games on the road, and Saturday night’s 7-4 loss to the Ottawa Senators turned into a clear warning sign. When the game started slipping away, Mike Sullivan didn’t wait around. He went straight to work with his lineup.
One of the biggest moves came in the second period, when Sullivan pushed Pavel Dorofeyev out of the top six and sent him to the third line. For a player brought in with big expectations, that kind of shift lands hard. Dorofeyev did manage to beat Jonas Johansson with a heavy one-timer late in the third period to make it 5-4, but by then the damage was already done.
That goal gave Dorofeyev three on the year through his first 13 games with New York, and that’s where the tension starts to build. He arrived with lofty expectations, but the production has not matched the billing, leaving him as the most expensive third-line winger in the NHL.
The frustrating part for the Rangers is that the underlying numbers keep suggesting something bigger is there. Dorofeyev has generated seven high-danger shot attempts that went unblocked, tied for fifth in the NHL, and he has also hit the post or crossbar five times, tied for eighth.
The opportunities are showing up. The finishing touch is not.
That’s why the demotion reads like more than a simple in-game shuffle. It’s a message.
Dorofeyev is getting looks and chances, but the results are missing, and his -3.1 in goals above expected is the sixth-worst mark in the NHL. For a player carrying an $11 million AAV over the next seven seasons, that’s not a small concern.
President and General Manager Chris Drury went after him from Vegas because of his elite scoring ability, but that hasn’t carried over to the 2026-27 season. The hope now is that the setback lights a fire under him and gets him back into the top six. If that doesn’t happen, he’ll need to find his game in the bottom six and work his way back the hard way.
In Other News...
Rangers Send A Clear Message With Tonights Lineup Shuffle
The Rangers are clearly looking for a different look against the Kings, and it starts in goal with James Reimer getting the nod in his first game for New York. Signed to a one-year contract, the veteran steps in after Dylan Garand handled the crease for seven straight starts following Igor Shesterkins injury, while the club also rolled out three line combination changes in an effort to shake things up.
There is a little extra edge to the matchup at Madison Square Garden, too, with former Rangers coach Peter Laviolette back in the building now guiding Los Angeles. Between the lineup tweaks and the change in net, the message is hard to miss: New York is treating this one as more than just another regular-season game. [Read more 🡒]
Blue Jackets Suddenly Face A Dmitri Voronkov Decision Fans Wont Ignore
The Rangers are still working through what kind of offseason swing they want to take, and the latest chatter around the league only adds another layer to that planning. New York is exploring its options in goal, but it is also keeping an eye on how the market develops up front, where a number of pending unrestricted free agents could become part of the conversation if the price and fit line up.
Columbus, meanwhile, has another name circulating in trade talk in Dmitri Voronkov, a reminder that the Blue Jackets may be weighing bigger roster decisions than expected. For the Rangers, that sort of movement matters because every shift in the forward market and every available piece in goal can change how aggressively they approach the rest of the summer. [Read more 🡒]
Laviolettes MSG Return Reopens A Rangers Collapse Fans Havent Forgotten
Peter Laviolette is back at Madison Square Garden on the other side of the bench, now guiding the Los Angeles Kings in what will be his first time coaching there since the Rangers moved on from him in April 2025. For Rangers fans, the sight alone brings back a complicated stretch: the high point of a Presidents Trophy run and franchise records in 2023-24, followed by a season that never came close to matching it and ended with a reset behind the bench.
Laviolette has been around long enough to make almost any return feel notable, with seven NHL teams on his coaching resume since 2001-02 and the most wins of any U.S.-born coach in league history. Still, this one carries a different edge because his exit from New York was so tied to the abrupt falloff after such a strong first year, and because the questions around that collapse never really stopped lingering around the building. [Read more 🡒]