With veteran coach Mike Sullivan joining the New York Rangers as their new bench boss, attention is turning to the roster he’ll have to work with next season. And while there are some interesting similarities between the current makeup of the Rangers and the Pittsburgh Penguins team Sullivan took over in 2015-16, it’s obvious the Blueshirts need to at least make a couple of significant roster changes.

In 2014-15, the Penguins had four players with a point-per-game average of higher than 0.75: defenseman Kris Letang (0.78), right winger Patric Hornqvist (0.80), center Evgeni Malkin (1.01), and center Sidney Crosby (1.09). But that offensive output stalled in a major way the following season under coach Mike Johnston, with Crosby’s point-per-game average dropping to 0.68, and only Malkin (0.93) having a point-per-game average better than 0.75. 

So, when Sullivan took over from Johnston in December of 2015, his challenge was clear: instill confidence in Pittsburgh’s stars. And to Sullivan’s credit – as he led the Pens to a Stanley Cup championship that season – his Penguins players responded well. Hornqvist was back at 0.77, Malkin had a boost to 1.11, Letang improved to 1.15, and Crosby nearly doubled his output to 1.29.

You can see, then, what Sullivan’s challenge is with the Rangers, who had four players this season with a point-per-game average of 0.75 or better: star right winger Artemi Panarin (1.11), center J.T. Miller (1.09), defenseman Adam Fox (0.82), and center Mika Zibanejad (0.76). 

Contrast that with the Blueshirts’ five producers of 0.75 points per game or better in 2023-24: Panarin (1.46), Fox (1.01), center Vincent Trocheck (0.94), left winger Chris Kreider (0.91) and Zibanejad (0.89). Sullivan’s job is to reinvigorate the Rangers’ veterans, and if the Blueshirts are to get back into the playoffs, he’ll need to be successful in that regard.

Still, it’s also clear there has to be some roster alteration to give the Rangers a different look next year. And although Rangers GM Chris Drury chose not to deal Kreider this season, we’d be lying if we said we didn’t expect Drury to pull the trigger on a Kreider trade this summer.

The 34-year-old Kreider had a sub-par year by his standards this season, but he still produced 22 goals and 30 points in 68 games. And while Kreider’s salary of $6.5-million runs for another two seasons, he has a modified no-trade clause that allows him to veto a deal to 15 of the league’s 31 other teams. That leaves 16 teams Kreider can be dealt to, and his track record of producing in the playoffs – he has 24 goals and 37 points in his most recent 43 playoff games – should make him attractive to many teams.

For instance, would an up-and-coming team like the Utah Hockey Club value Kreider’s skills? We think so, as Utah is a team in need of Kreider’s veteran knowhow. The same goes for the Buffalo Sabres and Detroit Red Wings, two teams in that they’re all trying to get over the hump and be a playoff squad next season. Thus, we can see Drury getting a decent deal for Kreider – even if it only means getting out from under Kreider’s cap hit and spending it elsewhere.

In any case, the Rangers definitely need to give Sullivan a rejigged roster to work with next season. Sullivan can infuse the Blueshirts’ returning players with the confidence he gave to the Penguins at the start of his very successful tenure, but he also needs a different chemistry mix for the Rangers to thrive. Because the way this season fell apart for the Rangers, they can’t run it back with the same group.

A different look has to happen for the Rangers, and if Drury can pull that off, the pressure will shift to Sullivan as he attempts to work his magic the way he did in Pittsburgh for nearly a full decade. 

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By Jack Sponagle, The Hockey News Intern

Jeff Skinner’s streak of 1,078 games without making the post-season is over, as he has played one playoff game with the Edmonton Oilers this spring. Ron Hainsey used to have the record of 907 games before he finally got into the 2016-17 playoffs with the Pittsburgh Penguins, and then went all the way to a Stanley Cup victory.

While both of those droughts were long, at least they came to an end. That wasn't the case for Guy Charron, who saw action in 734 NHL games in the 1970s and early 1980s with the Montreal Canadiens, Detroit Red Wings, Kansas City Scouts and Washington Capitals and never once made it into the post-season.

Here are the 10 active NHL players with the most games played without ever making the playoffs.  

1. Rasmus Ristolainen – 776 games

With Skinner’s 1,000-plus game drought over, the hard-hitting Philadelphia Flyers blueliner is now the league leader in this unfortunate stat. He has played in the NHL for 12 seasons, eight with the Buffalo Sabres and four with the Flyers.

2. Rasmus Dahlin – 509 games

The Buffalo Sabres defenseman – and No. 1 overall draft pick in 2018 – made the jump to the NHL at age 18. He’s now 25 and still waiting to see post-season play. The Sabres last made the playoffs in 2010-11, when Dahlin was 11.

3. Tage Thompson – 448 games

The third consecutive player to have ties with the Sabres, Thompson was traded to Buffalo by the St. Louis Blues in the deal that sent Ryan O’Reilly the other way. O’Reilly helped lead the Blues to the franchise’s first Cup. Thompson, meanwhile, hasn’t played in the first round yet.

4. Troy Terry – 427 games

The 27-year old University of Denver product is 73 games away from his 500th outing without his chase for Lord Stanley’s Cup ever really starting. Terry has been with the Anaheim Ducks for all eight of his seasons in the NHL, but has yet to appear in the post-season.

5. Mario Ferraro – 408 games

Ferraro is another veteran player on another struggling California team. The San Jose Sharks haven’t made the playoffs since 2018-19, and Ferraro played his first game with the Sharks the following season.

6. Henri Jokiharju – 407 games

The final player on this list to have spent time in Buffalo is Jokiharju, who’s now with the Boston Bruins. The defenseman spent six seasons with the Sabres after one year with the Chicago Blackhawks. He was dealt to the Bruins at this year’s trade deadline, and the team failed to make the playoffs for the first time since 2015-16.

7. Michael Rasmussen – 390 games

The ninth-overall pick in the 2017 NHL draft is a member of a Red Wings team that has missed out on the playoffs for the ninth-straight year. Rasmussen has been with the team for six of those seasons.

8. Isac Lundestrom – 337 games

The 25-year-old Swede is still relatively early in his career, which has been entirely spent with the Ducks. His teammates, Trevor Zegras (268 games) and Mason McTavish (229 games) are both headed for spots on this list if Anaheim can’t turn in some positive results.

9. Lucas Raymond – 320 games

Lundestrom’s countryman Raymond is another young, promising forward who has yet to get a crack at the playoffs. He’s an important cog in the Red Wings' machine, as one of many promising young players that Detroit has picked up in the last nine years of being in the draft lottery.

10. Philipp Kurashev – 317 games

The final player to crack the top 10 is the 25-year-old Blackhawks center. A fourth-round choice in 2018, the Swiss native has featured in over 300 matches with the Hawks, none coming after the regular season’s 82nd game. He edges out Calgary’s Morgan Frost (310) and Blackhawks teammate Joe Veleno (306). Perhaps not the honor he would most want to have.

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