Armchair Hockey Scout Beta

This is the 2025-26 edition — an archived read. Read the 2026-27 report →

93

Mika Zibanejad

New York Rangers Center

62 points and minus-22, and his five-on-five ice was 46-39 in his favour — the two numbers cannot both be the story.

SeasonTeamGPGAPTS+/-PIMPPSHGWSS%TOI
2011-12OTT9011-32000120.012:54
2012-13OTT4271320+96300907.813:34
2013-14OTT69161733-151830015310.514:20
2014-15OTT8020264602040015013.316:26
2015-16OTT81213051-21822718411.417:46
2016-17NYR56142337+91640211911.817:04
2017-18NYR72272047-2314140421212.717:58
2018-19NYR82304474-1247112523612.720:34
2019-20NYR57413475+914153620819.721:38
2020-21NYR56242650+218102717114.020:06
2021-22NYR81295281+3012151321913.219:38
2022-23NYR82395291+2520201525115.519:58
2023-24NYR81264672+1530122322111.819:45
2024-25NYR82204262-222270018310.918:46
2025-26 so far
Career930314426740+222571201342240913.018:23

This Season So Far

The 2025-26 season has not started. The empty row above is his, and both it and this paragraph fill in on their own from the morning after he first plays: what he has done, what it is worth against his own last season, and the run he is on when the two disagree.

Last Season

20 goals and 42 assists in all 82 games — 62 points, minus-22, at 18:46 a night on 183 shots.

49.8 per cent of the expected goals at five-on-five, the 51st percentile, across 1,011 minutes, with the on-ice goals 46-39 in his favour against an even expectation. A man who is plus-7 at five-on-five and minus-22 overall lost the difference somewhere else, and the club’s penalty kill and empty nets are where that money went.

The Finesse Game

The shot is the career. The one-timer from the left circle is still among the more dangerous releases in the league and 7 of his 20 goals came on the power play, which is where it is now most reliably used.

At even strength it has thinned. 20 goals on 183 shots at a median of 32 feet, with 29 per cent of attempts from inside 20, is a distance shooter who converted at an ordinary rate — two seasons ago he scored 39. The passing has held up better than the scoring: 42 assists is the second-highest total of his career.

The Physical Game

6-2 and 208, and he is heavier than he plays. He wins a draw, he protects the puck below the goal line, and he will take contact to make a play.

What he does not do is initiate. 22 penalty minutes in 82 games is a very quiet number for a second-line centre taking defensive-zone starts, and there is no edge here to speak of — he takes the punishment and does not answer it.

The Intangibles

Fourteen seasons, 930 games, 740 points, and eight of those years here.

He is 32 with a long contract and the number that follows him is the minus-22, which is the least informative figure on the page. The real question is the even-strength shot: at 39 goals he was a first-line centre and at 20 he is an expensive second one, and the club spent the deadline acquiring somebody to play ahead of him.

The numbers underneath

On the ice

Five-on-five, 2024-25 · 1,011 minutes

Expected goals
49.8%
52nd pct

share of the chances while he was out there

Shot attempts
48.8%
40th pct

share of the attempts while he was out there

Goals while he was on the ice: 46 for, 39 against. Expected: 41.0 and 41.3.

The eye and the numbers

Hindsight
Report
51st
Numbers
52nd

The two rank him within 1 points of one another. It was written for a back edition, with the seasons that followed already known. Neither the agreement nor the gap says anything about the eye, and this report is excluded from the club-level comparison for the same reason.

Both bars are percentiles among the 496 skaters in this edition with a report and enough ice time. The report bar ranks the mean of the grades above — 72 on their own scale — against every other report's mean. The numbers bar ranks his share of expected goals. A gap is a disagreement about where he belongs, not two scales talking past each other.

Usual linemates

2024-25 · 1011 minutes at five-on-five

Share of his five-on-five ice time spent alongside each player, measured from shift charts. Special teams are excluded: a power-play unit is not a line.

Why the numbers land there

Five-on-five, 2024-25

The club
NYR took 47.7% of the expected goals as a club. His own share is 49.8% — 2.1 above the club he did it on.
The role
Second line, 1,011 minutes at five-on-five — 63rd percentile in ice time.

With and without

TeammateTogetherHim apartMate apart
Reilly Smith53.6%46.2%50.9%
K'Andre Miller50.3%49.5%48.8%
Chris Kreider47.6%51.3%44.7%

53.6% together, 46.2% for him apart and 50.9% for Smith apart. He was worse away from Smith, who was no better away from him — he needed that pairing more than Smith did.

Expected-goal share while both were on the ice, and for each man in the minutes he played without the other. Apart is the pair subtracted from his own totals. It does not settle who was carrying whom — apart from each other, both were still playing with somebody — but it does say whether the share travelled when the pairing broke up.

Where he shoots from

goal on goal missed

295 unblocked shots in 2024-25, 20 of them goals. His median goal came from 25 feet. 29% of his shots came from inside twenty feet, 31% from beyond forty.