Rangers Leverage Depth to Reduce Star Player Ice Time
The team's offseason strategy focuses on distributing workload and protecting key players from excessive penalty-kill duties.
The New York Rangers are actively employing their acquired depth to ease the burden on star players, particularly by reducing their minutes on penalty-kill units. This strategy, a conscious effort by management during the offseason, aims to improve overall player performance by managing workloads.
President and general manager Chris Drury prioritized versatile players capable of contributing on special teams and adapting to different lineup positions. Head coach Mike Sullivan is now implementing this plan, with early season performance indicating a shift in how top players are deployed.
Sullivan expressed his hope that increased depth would allow him to lessen the penalty-kill time for key forwards like J.T. Miller and Mika Zibanejad. "My hope is we can take some of those [penalty-killing] minutes away from J.T. [Miller] and Mika [Zibanejad]," Sullivan stated during training camp. "I think if we do, we’ll have the ability to get a better version of them, just because of managing workloads."
The Rangers have faced the penalty kill an NHL-leading 10 times in the early part of the 2026-27 season. In contrast, Miller's average ice time of 16:24 ranks third among Rangers forwards, with only 32 seconds logged on the penalty kill. Defenseman Adam Fox has seen even less shorthanded time, with just 49 seconds.
Sullivan appears particularly cautious with defenseman Adam Fox, who experienced two long-term injuries last season. Fox, who has averaged at least 23 minutes of ice time per game for the past six seasons, saw his ice time limited to 22:50 in a recent win against Detroit, marking the first time he led the team in ice time and the first time he surpassed 20 minutes this season.
The coach is also making situational personnel decisions to leverage player strengths. "Last year we leaned on J.T. and Mika a lot in those [defensive] situations," Sullivan said. "I think now he’s [referring to Noah Laba] got a year under his belt. I think he has a better understanding of how he needs to play in order to be successful... Our hope is maybe we can take J.T. and Mika out of some of those situations and deploy them in a more advantageous situation offensively to try to take advantage of their strengths as a group."
Sullivan has also utilized in-game adjustments, such as moving Tye Kartye to the second line alongside Miller and Pavel Dorofeyev during a recent game. This interchangeability allows for line shuffles based on performance and team needs, with players like Kartye, known for his skating and forechecking ability, being plugged into different roles.
"One of Tye’s greatest strengths is he can really skate. He’s a dog on a bone on the puck. So when he gets in on the forecheck, he’s a disruptive player," Sullivan explained. "It helps his line establish a possession game in the offensive zone."