Center Mika Zibanejad was once considered one of the premier forwards in the NHL. However, after the 2024-25 season, his favor with Rangers fans has taken a hit, and could affect his perceived trade value down the road. Can he rebound under Mike Sullivan?
Nearly two years ago, the New York Rangers fought the Florida Panthers in the Eastern Conference Finals and were two games shy of making a trip to the Stanley Cup Finals.
Players like Chris Kreider, Mika Zibanejad, and Artemi Panarin were playing some of their best hockey. After the 2024-25 season, the team sputtered out, and it's resulted in GM Chris Drury altering course, trading away the core of that group from 2022.
Now, Chris Kreider, Jacob Trouba, Kaapo Kakko, and others are gone.
You'd have thought Zibanejad would be dealt too, but he has a full no-movement clause, which would make a trade harder to finalize, unless he waives it or agrees to the move.
With a recent poll from popular hockey personality on Hockey Twitter, JFresh, we can see how far Zibanejad's stock has fallen recently.
In the eyes of NHL fans, Zibanejad tumbled quite hard, as he went from the 37th spot in the fan poll conducted by Jfresh to a whopping 101!
The Rangers may want to move on from Zibanejad in the future, and this could potentially hurt his trade value.
For Zibanejad, the best he can do is focus on rebounding during the 2025-26 NHL season and be a better forward.
Fortunately for him, though, he didn't fall completely off the list like his BFF, Chris Kreider, did, who was once ranked #51 last season.
