Rangers’ Zibanejad plays in 1,000th career NHL game
New York Rangers forward Mika Zibanejad made history on Monday night by appearing in the 1,000th game of his NHL career.
A special game day for a special player. Tonight’s matchup vs. Ottawa will kick off at 7:30pm with a pre-game ceremony celebrating M1KA.
The Rangers held a pregame ceremony to honor the major milestone achieved by their alternate captain and one of the most productive forwards in the storied history of their franchise. Fittingly, Zibanejad reached the milestone against the Ottawa Senators, the only other team he has played for in his career.
Selected by the Senators at No. 6 overall in the 2011 NHL Draft, New York acquired Zibanejad during the 2016 offseason in a trade that sent Derrick Brassard to the Senators, and Zibanejad has climbed New York’s record books ever since.
Entering Monday night’s game, the Swedish forward has racked up 280 goals and 376 assists for 656 points with the Blueshirts. Those marks are good enough to put him 4th, 9th and 7th in each category, respectively.
For the totality of his career, Zibanejad has 344 goals and 453 assists for 807 points in 999 career games prior to Monday night’s contest.
A mainstay with the franchise since his acquisition, Zibanejad has been the driving force behind some of the Rangers’ most memorable moments of recent vintage. In the 2022 Stanley Cup Playoffs, he racked up 24 points in 20 games to power a surprising run to the Eastern Conference Final.
In February of 2024, he delivered a dramatic game-tying goal to force overtime in the Stadium Series game at MetLife Stadium between the Rangers and New York Islanders. The Blueshirts won in overtime on a goal to cap off a furious comeback from down 4-1.
Things have not gone as smoothly for New York at the team level over the past two seasons, but Zibanejad has delivered an excellent campaign in bounceback fashion this season. After finishing with 62 points in 82 games last year, his lowest total with New York aside from the pandemic-shortened 2019-20 season since 2018, the 32-year-old is already up to 67 points in 69 games this year.