The Columbus Blue Jackets finished the 2024-25 season four points ahead of the New York Rangers in the Metropolitan Division. Hardly anyone saw this possibility coming before the season.
But now as we look ahead to 2025-26, a different question is being asked. Are the Blue Jackets able to finish ahead of the Rangers again?
Welcome to Part 4 of our 2025 Summer Series in which we are comparing the Blue Jackets to other teams in their division and in the Eastern Conference. You can check out the first three parts of the series below in case you missed them.
To say the Rangers are a much different team than the start of last season would be a major understatement. Jacob Trouba is gone. Chris Kreider is gone. K’Andre Miller was traded to the Hurricanes.
The changes didn’t stop there. Perhaps the biggest and most expected move of the offseason came behind the bench. The Rangers went out and hired Mike Sullivan to be their head coach. He will be tasked with trying to get the Rangers back on track for the playoffs after undergoing a year of intense drama.
It was not only the changes themselves that made waves, it was the way the changes were executed that got the hockey world talking. GM Chris Drury used any means necessary to make the moves he felt were needed when the team was struggling. In a market like New York, expectations will always be at the level of winning the Stanley Cup.
The question we will consider today is will the bevy of changes be enough for the Rangers to get back to the postseason. And then how do the new-look Rangers compare to a Blue Jackets’ team that finished better then them in the standings?
In short, it’ll be like flipping a coin. The teams are actually really close.
Forwards
For as much drama as the Rangers went through in 2024-25, they still finished the season as a top-12 team in the league in goals for. A big reason for that was the play of former Blue Jacket Artemi Panarin.
There are some who believe Panarin had a down season for this standards. That depends which lens you want to look through. Although his 89 points was his worst full season with the Rangers, he scored 37 goals which was his second-best season for goals in his career. He was still by far the Rangers’ MVP up front outscoring second-place Mika Zibanejad by 27 points.
Panarin will once again be…
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