![\"Cam](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/8-philadelphia-flyers-battles-position-119100542.jpg\")
Cam York #8 of the Philadelphia Flyers battles for position with Gabe Perreault #94 of the Rangers in front of goaltender Aleksei Kolosov at the Xfinity Mobile Arena. NHLI via Getty Images<\/p>\nLOS ANGELES \u2014 The Rangers\u2019 announcement of their plans to retool naturally coincided with Gabe Perreault\u2019s return to the top line.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Now that the Blueshirts have decided to take a step back, recalibrate and make some personnel changes, Perreault is at the top of the list of players who can be managed more strategically going forward this season. Development has long been a critique of this organization, but circumstances are looking different than previously.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Skating on the first unit with Mika Zibanejad and J.T. Miller for a third straight game Tuesday against the Kings, Perreault is starting to find his footing at the NHL level.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s obviously nice playing with guys like that,\u201d Perreault told The Post before the Rangers set out on the current road trip. \u201cThey\u2019ve been here for a long time and kind of make it easy on me. Sometimes, it\u2019s not always easy playing top line, top D-pair. It makes it harder in that sense. But I think since my first time in the top six, now I\u2019m definitely more comfortable and more used to it, in a way. I hope to just keep getting better and more comfortable.\u201d<\/p>\n
The 20-year-old sure looked confident in the final minutes of regulation Monday night, when he was streaking toward the Ducks net and flipped to his backhand before Jackson LaCombe got his stick in the way at the last second.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It was a one-goal game at the time, and Perreault attacked the net like it was.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He\u2019s had the puck on his stick a lot more. And after failing to record a single shot in half of his first six games, Perreault has only had two such performances over his 11 games since.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Cam York #8 of the Philadelphia Flyers battles for position with Gabe Perreault #94 of the Rangers in front of goaltender Aleksei Kolosov at the Xfinity Mobile Arena. NHLI via Getty Images<\/p>\n
\u201cGabe had a hell of a game [against the Ducks],\u201d Rangers captain J.T. Miller said Monday night. \u201cI think maybe [he] did a lot of things that people watching don\u2019t see. Obviously, he\u2019s a really gifted player with the puck. It\u2019s how he\u2019s made a name for himself at this point. That being said, he was in such good spots all over the rink today. You can tell he\u2019s learning a lot as he goes. He\u2019s trying to be a sponge and it\u2019s fun to play with.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s just going to get better as he gets going, but I think today, his play without the puck was better. He was good with the puck, but I\u2019m saying his play without the puck really stood out to me.\u201d<\/p>\n
In an otherwise disappointing effort against the Senators last week, Perreault recorded the first multigoal effort of his young NHL career. His three goals and four assists through 17 games indicate his game could be coming.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The more he plays with top six caliber talent the more opportunities he has to cement himself there.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In 58:13 of 5-on-5 ice time with Zibanejad and Miller, the trio has been on the ice for seven Rangers goals and three against, per Natural Stat Trick. The two veterans have said they enjoy skating alongside one another for the versatility at center.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
If Perreault can seize the top-line wing role early, it would be one less thing for the Rangers to address in the retool.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI think he\u2019s getting quicker with his decision-making,\u201d head coach Mike Sullivan said of the rookie. \u201cI think his foot speed picking up and the game is probably slowing down in his brain, also. I think that\u2019s all happening at the same time. That\u2019s just the process so. He makes a handful of plays every night. He almost scores in the third period there to tie it up [Monday night]. He plays the game with a lot of courage. I give him credit. He takes that puck to the far post. When you take it to the far post like that, usually you\u2019re going to pay a price when that happens.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI think he plays the game with a lot of courage, his willingness to do those types of things. I think it just speaks to his competitiveness.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LOS ANGELES \u2014 The Rangers\u2019 announcement of their plans to retool naturally coincided with Gabe Perreault\u2019s return to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":420352,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[4823,385,99],"class_list":["post-420351","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-new-york-rangers","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/420351","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=420351"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/420351\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/420352"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=420351"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=420351"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=420351"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}