Armchair Scout
Mika Zibanejad

Photo by Resolute, CC BY-SA 3.0

Mika Zibanejad

New York Rangers Center #93

Thirty-four goals, seventy-eight points, and minus twenty.

SeasonGPGAPTS+/-PIMPPSHGWSS%TOI
2025-2681344478-2014162321515.820:54
Career1011348470818+22711361545262413.318:35

Last Season

Thirty-four goals and 44 assists in 81 games — 78 points, minus-20, at 20:54 a night with 16 power-play goals. His 1,011th career game.

The Finesse Game

The one-timer from the left circle is still one of the better weapons in the league and sixteen power-play goals is the proof. New York finished seventh on the power play and he is the reason.

At five-on-five it is a different picture: 327 unblocked attempts from a median of 29 feet with 28 per cent from beyond forty. He shoots from too far out when the ice is not manufactured for him.

Forty-four assists is a genuinely good number and the half people forget.

The Physical Game

Six foot two, 208, and he is strong on the puck without being physical. Fourteen penalty minutes in 81 games.

The skating has slowed and he compensates by arriving in the right place, which works on a power play and much less at even strength.

The Intangibles

Forty-nine point nine per cent of the expected goals, 52nd percentile — dead average — with the goals 40-40 at five-on-five.

The minus-20 comes from somewhere other than the ice he was on. That is the sort of figure that gets a thirty-four goal scorer criticised in New York, and it does not survive being looked at.

Nine points in his last ten. He is 33, 818 points into 1,011 games, and still the club’s most reliable source of goals.