{"id":448136,"date":"2026-02-04T08:00:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-04T08:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/448136\/"},"modified":"2026-02-04T08:00:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-04T08:00:09","slug":"gabe-perreault-seeking-lessons-as-rangers-season-slips-away","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/448136\/","title":{"rendered":"Gabe Perreault seeking lessons as Rangers’ season slips away"},"content":{"rendered":"

Like most young players, Gabe Perreault mostly experienced winning on his way to the NHL, whether it was with the USA Hockey National Team Development Program or at Boston College, where he reached the national title game in 2024.<\/p>\n

But since scoring a pair of goals Jan. 14, Perreault has just one assist \u2014 and no goals \u2014 over his past eight games and the Rangers have fallen to the bottom of the Eastern Conference with losses in seven of those matches.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s definitely a lot of learning,\u2019\u2019 Perreault said after practice Tuesday in Tarrytown. \u201cFor me, growing up, I know you can learn the most from failure, in a way. It\u2019s never fun to lose, but you can still grow from it and have this help us win more games.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 20-year-old winger, selected by the Rangers No. 23 overall in 2023, is one of several young players stepping into a larger role in the wake of this disastrous stretch that led to general manager Chris Drury issuing another letter to fans and opting not to sign Artemi Panarin to an extension.<\/p>\n

\"NewNew York Rangers right wing Gabe Perreault (94) handles the puck against Pittsburgh Penguins defenseman Erik Karlsson (65) during the first period at PPG Paints Arena. Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

Perreault, who made his NHL debut last season with a five-game cameo with the Rangers, is among those who will be sticking around Broadway, as the team looks to ship Panarin<\/a> \u2014 and likely others \u2014 out of town by the March 6 trade deadline.<\/p>\n

The Rangers are set to miss the playoffs in consecutive seasons, but Perreault doesn\u2019t want the rest of the year to be a waste.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou still have to have a positive attitude, whether you\u2019re winning or losing,\u2019\u2019 Perreault said. \u201cIt\u2019s the same mindset whether I was in college or the [national] program. You just have to stay with it, day by day.\u201d<\/p>\n

So whether it\u2019s Perreault, Noah Laba or any of the other young players looking to forge a path with the Rangers, the stretch run of the regular season will remain valuable.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have to take advantage of everything, whether it\u2019s practice or games,\u2019\u2019 Perreault said. \u201cWhen you\u2019re in the locker room and with the team, you can learn from guys who have played for a while.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

One of the Rangers\u2019 many issues during this horrid stretch has been poor goaltending in the absence of Igor Shesterkin.<\/p>\n

Not only do they no longer have Shesterkin \u2014 out since Jan. 5 and on injured reserve with a lower-body injury \u2014 to mask many of their other issues, they\u2019ve also been forced to play Jonathan Quick more often than they\u2019d like.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\tRead the expert take on the Blueshirts\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSign up for Inside the Rangers, a weekly Sports+ exclusive.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\tThank you\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Quick turned 40 last month and has struggled with the added playing time, as has his replacement as the backup goalie, Spencer Martin.<\/p>\n

The duo has combined to allow at least five goals in two of their past three games \u2014 all losses.<\/p>\n

Only four goalies who have played as many games as Martin \u2014 six \u2014 have a worse save percentage than his .864 mark and no one with that many games played has a worse goals-against average than Martin\u2019s 4.13.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s got an opportunity to help us,\u2019\u2019 coach Mike Sullivan said of the 30-year-old on his fifth NHL team. \u201cI think he competes hard in there. I think he\u2019s made some timely saves for us. I think he plays the puck very well [and] adds to our depth at the goaltending position.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Like most young players, Gabe Perreault mostly experienced winning on his way to the NHL, whether it was…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":448137,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[4823,385,99],"class_list":["post-448136","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\/448136","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=448136"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/448136\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/448137"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=448136"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=448136"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=448136"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}