Why Rangers prospect Gabe Perreault gives fans a reason to watch the remainder of the season
The Rangers' Gabe Perreault skates against the Islanders at UBS Arena on Dec. 27, 2025. Credit: Getty Images/Bruce Bennett
GREENBURGH – Gabe Perreault is, without doubt, the No. 1 prospect in the Rangers’ organization. And for disappointed fans wondering why they should invest any time watching, or caring about these last 25 games of a lost 2025-26 season, he would be the biggest reason.
Because if this “retool’’ the Rangers have started is going to be successful, the 20-year-old winger is going to have to grow into a star. And the sooner, the better.
It hasn’t been a perfectly smooth ride for Perreault this season, his first full year pro after joining the team at the end of last year following two seasons at Boston College. He had a fast start to the preseason, but didn’t make the team out of training camp; then was called up from AHL Hartford for three games in November, before being sent back. Finally, a hot spell in Hartford, and 10 goals and seven assists in 20 games there, got him recalled again in December, this time for good.
He scored his first NHL goal in his first game back up, at St. Louis on Dec. 18, and assists in his next two. But he had one assist over his next eight games, before scoring two goals in an 8-4 loss to Ottawa on Jan. 14. At the Olympic break, he has three goals and five assists in 29 games.
But something clicked in that Ottawa game. Perreault started on the third line, but was moved up to the top line with Mika Zibanejad and J.T. Miller after the Rangers fell behind early. And he’s been a fixture with the two Olympians since.
He was asked Thursday whether he looks at Miller and Zibanejad as just his linemates, or looks up to them as older veterans and team leaders.
“It's a little bit of both,’’ he said. “I mean, I definitely look up to them. Because as a kid growing up, like when ‘Bread’ (Artemi Panarin) was here… I grew up in Chicago (where Panarin began his NHL career), and I was able to see him and (Patrick) Kane a lot. And you look up to those guys.
“And obviously, (Zibanejad and Miller) are superstars,’’ he said. “So I guess you're looking up to them in a way, but at the same time, you want to be your own player and learn from them and get everything you can, all the information. And I mean, there's no better way to do it than playing with guys like that.’’
In the Rangers’ 4-3 overtime win over Boston at Madison Square Garden on Jan. 26, Perreault set up a goal by Miller, taking a drop pass from Zibanejad and sending a perfect cross-ice pass to Miller for a one-timer that gave the Rangers a 2-1 lead at the time.
“I think that Gabe is just really coming along,’’ Miller said after the game. “He makes a lot of plays away from the puck… He takes care of the puck, he does what he's supposed to, and you know he has that ability right there today to make high-end plays.’’
With Panarin having been traded to the Los Angeles Kings, the Rangers are going to need Perreault to make some of those high-end plays to help make up for some of the creativity their offense will be missing without Panarin.
And if those kinds of expectations might put pressure on Perreault, he said he doesn’t look at it that way.
“I guess there could be more expectations, in a way, but I don't try to look it like that,’’ he said. “I think try to be kind of my own player, my own person, and just be the best version I can be. And I think that's what I've done since I've been at the (U.S. National Team Development) Program. Going in there, I wasn't necessarily supposed to be one of the top guys or whatnot, and I think I just try to keep getting better and better.’’
That will be the reason to watch these last 25 games – to see Perreault get better and better.
Colin Stephenson covers the Rangers for Newsday. He has spent more than two decades covering the NHL and just about every sports team in the New York metropolitan area.
