Rangers’ 5 Longest-Tenured Players For 2025-26

Many thought he would follow up that good season with an even better one last season, but as the entire team collapsed around him, he became part of the issue, and his production dropped. He scored only 17 goals and 45 points in 82 games played. Lafreniere also just signed a seven-year contract with the Rangers, so now, expectations are going to be even higher for him to perform this season, because if he doesn’t, he could be a player that is quickly moved off of this list by the time next offseason comes around.

#4: Igor Shesterkin: 2019-2025

While Igor Shesterkin technically made his NHL debut in January 2020, that was still part of the 2019-20 season, so that is why his starting year is 2019. He was brought up at the time because of how well he played in the American Hockey League (AHL), putting up a record of 17-4-3 with a 1.91 goals-against average(GAA) and a .934 save percentage(SV%). Right from his first game, he was amazing, and he quickly became the starter over a struggling Henrik Lundqvist and a young Alex Georgiev. In the 12 games he played in before the season was shut down due to COVID, he had a record of 10-2-0 with a 2.52 GAA and a .932 SV%. Shesterkin has not looked back since and has already won a Vezina Trophy as the best goalie in the entire league during the 2021-22 season, a season in which he was also nominated for the Hart Trophy, which goes to the overall league MVP.

Shesterkin is the backbone for the Rangers and will continue to be for many years to come, as he signed an eight-year contract extension with the team last season that makes him the highest-paid goalie in the NHL at $11.5 million per season. With him making that much now, expectations are going to be higher than ever before, and fans are going to want him to be a Vezina-caliber goalie every season. If he is able to play at a high level for the duration of this contract, he could challenge Lundqvist for best goalie in franchise history.

#3: Adam Fox: 2019-2025

Adam Fox was brought in via trade from the Carolina Hurricanes and made his debut for the Rangers at the start of the 2019-20 season, and from there, he has never looked back. He blossomed into a superstar in the league and should be considered a top-three defenseman in the NHL. He won the Norris Trophy as the league’s best defenseman in just his second season, and while many don’t think he’s that good because he doesn’t score as many goals or skate as well as Cale Makar or have the size of a Victor Hedman, Fox makes up for it with his elite hockey IQ and can make plays no other players in this league could even think of.

While he didn’t have the best season in 2024-25, he was forced to play with poor defensive partners like Lindgren and Carson Soucy for the majority of the season. With the signing of Vladislav Gavrikov this offseason, Fox is finally going to have a partner that can carry his own weight, and it will allow Fox to focus on his own game and help create more offense from the backend, which is an area the Rangers struggled with last season. If Fox can have a bounce-back season and prove his doubters wrong, he could be considered a favorite for the Norris Trophy, and maybe then, he will finally get the respect he deserves.

#2: Artemi Panarin: 2019-2015

The 2019-20 season was a big season for major debuts for the Rangers, and none were bigger than Artemi Panarin. He signed as a free agent with the team in that offseason, and from day one, he has been the team’s best offensive player and is still one of the most dynamic players to watch in the entire league. He has accumulated 550 points as a Ranger so far in his career, so with just 50 points this season, he will reach 600 points in New York, which would put him eighth on the franchise’s all-time points leader list, with the potential to go even higher than that. It is crazy to think this is the final season of the contract he signed back in 2019, so the big question going into this season is, will this be Panarin’s last season in New York?

There is an argument to be made that Panarin is the best free agent signing in not just the franchise’s history, but in recent NHL history. Players like him don’t become free agents very often, and he chose to sign with the Rangers while they were still in a rebuilding phase. And when he was brought in, he helped speed up the process of getting back to being contenders. While there have been questions about him being able to perform in the playoffs, overall, he has been an amazing player to watch over these last six seasons, and now, we wait and see what his seventh season has in store.

#1: Mika Zibanejad: 2016-2025

With Kreider now traded to the Anaheim Ducks, the title of longest-tenured Ranger now belongs to Mika Zibanejad. He was brought over from the Ottawa Senators in the 2016 offseason and made his debut for the team in the 2016-17 season. He will now be entering his 10th season with the Rangers, and his time with the team has been up and down so far. He was still a young and upcoming player when he first arrived here, and over the years, he developed into a number one center before our eyes and became one of the most lethal goal scorers in the entire league. His best season came in 2019-20, when he scored 41 goals and 75 points in just 57 games played. It was at this point that many believed he would be the next elite center in the NHL, and while he never got back to those goal-scoring numbers, he has had three 30-goal or more seasons with the team and five seasons of at least 70 points.

It’s the past two seasons that have left fans disappointed in Zibanejad, as he has seen his offensive production take a big hit in that time, and his overall game seems to be on the decline. He started playing better when J.T. Miller arrived last season, and he was moved to the right wing, but going into this season, will he still be playing on the wing, or will he start as a center to give the Rangers some great center depth with him, Miller, and Vincent Trocheck each having their own line? This is going to be a make-or-break season for Zibanejad, because if he does well, that should mean the team is back to being a contender for the Stanley Cup. If he plays poorly once again, his time in New York could be coming to an end much sooner than he would like.

The Rangers have gone through a lot of roster turnover over the past year. It’s crazy to think that at this time last season, it was basically the same roster that brought them to the Eastern Conference Final coming back for one more shot, and now, more than half of those players are gone, and a new core is being established for the team going forward. The Rangers are going to be a very interesting team to watch this season, and these players are going to play a big role in whether they are successful or not.