Player Discussion Mika Zibanejad

[mas0764]

I like where the tide seems to be going with Zibanejad on this board. He’s more of a negative to our Cup hopes at the current moment due to his declining play and salary and so it would very likely be a good thing if he’s moved and we should be exploring it. At the same time, to act like he shouldn’t be appreciated is wrong.

I liked the player for a long time and wish I could have liked him more but at the end of the day the goal isn’t scoring 40 goals, 75 points or to win a playoff round or two. Those kind of achievements are only notable for the Rangers because they have 1 Cup since the Great Depression, and have essentially never had an elite center except end-of-his-prime Messier.

Zibanejad is the epitome of the Dark Knight line: Die a hero or live long enough to become the villain. He’s the latter.

Mika was an excellent acquisition. I re-do the Brassard for Mika trade ten times out of ten. I want players like Mika on my team. I want to flip aging second liners for up and coming first liners every single time.

And he was a very, very, very good player. He could score goals. He ended up being a pretty good defender. He became a reliable 70 point player. There is nothing wrong with him at all.

Except for one thing: he was the best the Rangers had, and the teams that win Cups have Sidney Crosbys, Nathan MacKinnons, Patrick Kanes, Alex Ovechkins.

He was a very good player, but he was on a team that needed a Hall of Famer to get over the hump, like almost all Cup winners do have 1-2 of at forward. And he just isn’t that. Though you could argue he’s about 5-10 playoff goals from the Rangers having two Cup wins the last three years, that’s how close it is, and he’d be a Hall of Famer.

So you can’t blame Mika… but his $8m contract extension does keep you from getting the players you need.

And so I’m forced to wish he wasn’t here.

 

[McRanger92]

I like where the tide seems to be going with Zibanejad on this board. He’s more of a negative to our Cup hopes at the current moment due to his declining play and salary and so it would very likely be a good thing if he’s moved and we should be exploring it. At the same time, to act like he shouldn’t be appreciated is wrong.

I liked the player for a long time and wish I could have liked him more but at the end of the day the goal isn’t scoring 40 goals, 75 points or to win a playoff round or two. Those kind of achievements are only notable for the Rangers because they have 1 Cup since the Great Depression, and have essentially never had an elite center except end-of-his-prime Messier.

Zibanejad is the epitome of the Dark Knight line: Die a hero or live long enough to become the villain. He’s the latter.

Mika was an excellent acquisition. I re-do the Brassard for Mika trade ten times out of ten. I want players like Mika on my team. I want to flip aging second liners for up and coming first liners every single time.

And he was a very, very, very good player. He could score goals. He ended up being a pretty good defender. He became a reliable 70 point player. There is nothing wrong with him at all.

Except for one thing: he was the best the Rangers had, and the teams that win Cups have Sidney Crosbys, Nathan MacKinnons, Patrick Kanes, Alex Ovechkins.

He was a very good player but on a team that needed a Hall of Famer to get over the hump, like almost all Cup winners do have 1-2 of at forward. And he just isn’t that. Though you could argue he’s about 5-10 playoff goals from the Rangers having two Cup wins the last year, that’s how close it is, and he’d be a Hall of Famer.

So you can’t blame Mika… but his $8m contract extension does keep you from getting the players you need.

And so I’m forced to wish he wasn’t here.

Too negative. We’re a good team and he’s a good player. We’re not better off without him

 

[CasusBelli]

He was terrible as a Ranger. Then again, the Rangers had very poor coaching, structure, and accountability in those days. It was a free for all and the inmates ran the asylum. Joke about the recent teams, in those years it was 100x worse.

Was that around the time of the FLY line? Living in Florida at the time, we just heard that NYR threw money at all the UFAs. Not a lot of NHL-wide coverage down there at the time — except for NHL 2Nite on ESPN 2.

 

[80shockeywasbuns]

I laugh sometimes at the disconnect between people on this forum/social media and the fan base overall/crowd at MSG because I open up this thread and see a debate about whether he’s the most hated Ranger in history but come opening night he’ll get one of the biggest cheers when introduced.

I feel like there’s 3 groups of people on here.
-The ones who call Mika a p***y/vegan/beta who should just be ignored and maybe would refuse to cheer him at a NYR game thinking they’re cool
-People who have legit hockey related criticisms of Mika and don’t think he’s even close to a 1C but would obviously cheer him at a game because why tf would you not cheer for a player on your team in person especially a guy with a billion points as a NYR
-People who think Zibanejad is a Barkov level C and any criticism of him is “hate” and whining/complaining

 

[eco's bones]

Looking at Zibanejad's last year......his power play and shorthanded play were very good. The playoff series vs. Washington and Carolina were very good.

His 5v5 or even strength play was not very good and in the third round vs. Florida he disappeared almost completely. Personally I thought his linemate Kreider was very good as far as everything at least until the playoff series vs. Florida. Chris had a really good regular season throughout even in spite of Mika's underwhelming 5v5 play. Expected goals and points were there for him. Shorthanded and power play he was really good. He even outproduced Mika 75 points to 72. Before 2023-24 it was Mika who was more than less the driver of that line. Last year there wasn't a driver so much as Kreider's play and production didn't really decline. Chris is still very good value for his contract. Mika not terrible but not really.

I don't know if Mika's new diet or his workout regimen factored into it or it's just the beginning of decline or just an off year or lost confidence and or any combination of the above. Could he rebound?---who knows. As a 2C he'd be fine enough apart from he's being paid to be a 1C and Trocheck is really a 2C too.

Even if he does rebound this season (and that's not guaranteed) the thing I'm not crazy about with Mika is he wilts when things really get tough. He's a big strong forward but more often than not I find that he gets dominated by other big strong C's when things really matter. With 6 more years at $8.5 mil left I don't think moving him is going to be very easy or it's very likely if we do we'll get a young 1C worthy or ready player back nor do we have one in our system. Even a guy like Zegras......he possibly could replace the point production but his all around game needs some work nor is he that physically dynamic. I also think there's some likelihood we'll have to retain some significant salary for the duration of the contract.

 

[Cygnus 2112]

Zibs and Trouba- their contracts make them more reviled than they should be. But even if they were more cost effective, they still shouldn't be the front line talent we would rely on to win it all.

Sigh.

 

[bhamill]

Too negative. We’re a good team and he’s a good player. We’re not better off without him

You are correct. But come playoff time it's reasonable to wonder if that 8.5mil cap hit spent otherwise would make us more of a contender. Maybe he comes in with something to prove this year. If last year was part of a trend, by 2030 this board WILL absolutely hate him.

 

[markymarc1215]

Is Zibanejad the most hated players in Rangers history?

I'd read up on Billy Tibbets first. Zibs is far from hated. Just had a disappointing year.

 

[Roo Returns]

Was that around the time of the FLY line? Living in Florida at the time, we just heard that NYR threw money at all the UFAs. Not a lot of NHL-wide coverage down there at the time — except for NHL 2Nite on ESPN 2.

Yeah it was that year. Ulanov was gone by the end of it. Karpa hung around in the minors for a bit.

 

[RangersFan1994]

I'd read up on Billy Tibbets first. Zibs is far from hated. Just had a disappointing year.

He is hated because for a guy his size, he plays small. Imagine if he was aggressive,physical, tenacious and took control of games outside of non playoff teams or the Flyers. He does not dominate in the playoffs, whines to the ref and stop playing to complain about a missed call, as a #1 center on ths team, he fails to dominate as he should. Teams dont win with soft #1 centers like this. Mika would be the type of player to say sorry after he threw a check at the opponent

 

[mrmovies779]

He is hated because for a guy his size, he plays small. Imagine if he was aggressive,physical, tenacious and took control of games outside of non playoff teams or the Flyers. He does not dominate in the playoffs, whines to the ref and stop playing to complain about a missed call, as a #1 center on ths team, he fails to dominate as he should. Teams dont win with soft #1 centers like this. Mika would be the type of player to say sorry after he threw a check at the opponent

So much wrong with this post it's pretty comical

 

[romba]

He is hated because for a guy his size, he plays small. Imagine if he was aggressive,physical, tenacious and took control of games outside of non playoff teams or the Flyers. He does not dominate in the playoffs, whines to the ref and stop playing to complain about a missed call, as a #1 center on ths team, he fails to dominate as he should. Teams dont win with soft #1 centers like this. Mika would be the type of player to say sorry after he threw a check at the opponent

He has a history of concussions/serious injuries when when tenacious in front. It is what it is, don’t love it either. CK is supposed to be the guy crashing the net to make space anyway.

 

[n8]

Let's be honest. Ziba only needs one good playoff post-season to be bestowed the knighthood of goatage.
He needs to practice his PP one-timer like 200 times after every practice. 100x stationary. 100x in motion.
1000 reps every week during the summer. I did love his play on the PK this year.

 

[Shesterkybomb]

Imo he needs more muscle, maybe he's unable to gain more but he's pretty scrawny for a guy his height. Would love if he could manage to get stronger, it would go a long way to his ability to hold onto the puck, absorb contact and win puck battles. He seems to have lost a step speed wise as well.

 

[Peltz]

Can we bench him yet?

 

[B17 Apricots]

In all the positive last night I can't really say much good about Mika. It's one game but given his prior struggles last year the concern is warranted. Seemed like more of the same. We'll see how it plays out this year. Hopefully I can come back to this later on and say this was wrong.

And I don't think it's an age thing with him either, it seems to be a mental thing. Didn't register a shot on goal yesterday. Passed up great shooting opportunities, especially on the PP. He was CONSTANTLY looking for that backdoor Kreider play, over and over and over. That 4 man PP when Fox was down low he had great shooting lanes and kept forcing it back to Fox looking for the cross crease to CK. His game has transformed entirely centered around setting up his friend now. It's insane. Every rush, every PP, every opportunity he's looking for his mate. This was a guy that scored 41 goals in 57 games. Theres a level of selfishness completely lost from his game now. He doesn't want to be THE guy, he's become more of a complimentary, passenger sort of player. What happened to the guy that used to be able to drive a line himself? What a shame. Hopefully he dials it way the f*** up this year but I'm not optimistic about that right now

 

[Mike in Houston]

Mika might very well be this year's Ranger whipping boy. A spot usually designated for the 12/13F and the 6/7D.

Other candidates include Igor (especially if he plays shit) and Trouba.

 

[KirkAlbuquerque]

In all the positive last night I can't really say much good about Mika. It's one game but given his prior struggles last year the concern is warranted. Seemed like more of the same. We'll see how it plays out this year. Hopefully I can come back to this later on and say this was wrong.

And I don't think it's an age thing with him either, it seems to be a mental thing. Didn't register a shot on goal yesterday. Passed up great shooting opportunities, especially on the PP. He was CONSTANTLY looking for that backdoor Kreider play, over and over and over. That 4 man PP when Fox was down low he had great shooting lanes and kept forcing it back to Fox looking for the cross crease to CK. His game has transformed entirely centered around setting up his friend now. It's insane. Every rush, every PP, every opportunity he's looking for his mate. This was a guy that scored 41 goals in 57 games. Theres a level of selfishness completely lost from his game now. He doesn't want to be THE guy, he's become more of a complimentary, passenger sort of player. What happened to the guy that used to be able to drive a line himself? What a shame. Hopefully he dials it way the f*** up this year but I'm not optimistic about that right now

Yup. All the worst Zib qualities already on display in game 1.


Demote his ass.

 

[MysticLeviathan]

I hate his game and I hate his attitude.

 

[GAGLine]

My hope is that Kreider and Smith will click, and that in turn will get Mika going.

Kreider's first goal was the result of some good cycling by that line. They had the puck in the zone for quite a while, IIRC. So even if Mika didn't get a point, he was still involved.