6 New York Rangers Competitions 2025-26 season – Hockey Writer – New York Rangers

With the 2025-26 season on the way, the New York Rangers are hoping to fall behind them last season. They hope this upcoming season will see them fighting for a return to the playoffs, not for the first overall draft. Although returning to the playoffs is the goal, there are only 82 games to play first if you get there. In this post, as we approach the start of the 2025-26 NHL season, we will consider five essential regular season games as the Rangers begin.

October 7, 2025 and October 11, 2025: Main Opener with Pittsburgh Penguins and Mike Sullivan Return to Pittsburgh

For the first time in three years, the Rangers will start their season at home in Madison Square Garden. The first opponent of the season is the same as last year, with the Pittsburgh Penguins entering MSG. However, compared to last season, there is much more interest this season given that both teams have made even bigger changes during the offseason. The Penguins let go of their long-time head coach Mike Sullivan, who was almost immediately taken to the Rangers’ new coach. Similarly, Dan Muse, who was an assistant coach in New York last season, is now the new head coach for the Penguins. So, it will be two coaches who know the other team very well and thus start the season.

In the third game of the Rangers this season, they head to Pittsburgh, which will be Sullivan’s first confrontation with his former team in the city. It was definitely an exciting time for him, and he would likely get a big video tribute before the game started. He won two Stanley Cups in his back-to-back seasons, his first two seasons as head coach. He has brought great success to the Penguin Organization and now, he hopes to bring the same success to the Rangers.

October 28, 2025: JT Miller returns to Vancouver with Canucks

The Rangers will head to Western Canada to end in October, with one of the games going against the Canucks in Vancouver. While it might seem like any other game, it will be JT Miller’s first return to Vancouver as his deal returned to the Rangers since. He’s been facing them since then, and that game happened at MSG. Miller spent part of six seasons with the Canucks, scoring 152 goals and 437 points in 404 games. He is their elite player, but the locker room problem is the main reason why he was sent back to New York. He played well after the trade, scoring 13 goals and 35 points in 32 games, which looks better for a team entering the season.

November 4, 2025: K’andre Miller returns to MSG

In one of the biggest offseason deals to date, the Rangers struck a deal with their division rival, Carolina Hurricanes, which allowed K’andre Miller to be traded to Carolina in exchange for Scott Morrow, a 2026 first-round first-round draft pick and a 2026 second-round draft pick. He was selected as No. 22 in the 2018 NHL Draft and spent five seasons in New York. Although he does show glorious glitter from time to time, he can never completely put his game together, and last season was an important step compared to his game two seasons ago. Since he is a restricted free agent, now seems to be the best time to move on from him, many feel that the Rangers have received a huge reward for the players they know they no longer want.

Related: Rangers do have trouble in the top 10

While Miller never became a fan who wanted him to be a New York player, he was still part of two teams that made it to the Eastern Conference finals and he himself had some memorable moments. Whether it was scoring from the coast to the coast or tying the game in the last few seconds, Miller had an impact in his five seasons with the team. It will take some time to get used to him wearing a hurricane uniform, but it will be a game to watch him return to MSG.

December 15, 2025: Chris Kreider and Jacob Trouba return to MSG

This will be one of the most fun games for any team this season. The Rangers and the Anaheim Ducks have made two big deals over the past few months. The first one sent Rangers captain Jacob Trouba to the Ducks at the time in exchange for Urho vaakanainen and a 2025 fourth-round draft pick. The next trade happened earlier in the offseason, when they handed the team’s longest player, Chris Kreider, to Anaheim in exchange for Carry Terrance and a 2025 third-round pick. Kreider has many target score records in both the regular season and the playoffs, so Kreider can be regarded as a franchise icon. He was traded to hurt the fan base, but the timing of both sides moving forward seemed to be right. Now, they both will be back to MSG’s first game against the Rangers, which is certainly an exciting game.

January 2, 2026: Winter Classics with the Florida Panthers

They will once again compete in the Winter Classic in Game 1 of the Rangers in 2026, this time against two-time Stanley Cup champions Florida Panthers. The two teams met in the 2024 Eastern Conference finals, with the Panthers winning the game in six games. Both teams have since gone in completely different directions, with the Rangers struggling to fall and doing the remake process, while the Panthers went on to win another Stanley Cup. Now both teams will meet again in Miami for the Winter Classics. Although they are not the biggest competitors, it will be a fun game, and the atmosphere alone is enough to get people watching the NHL into 2026.

In the last calendar year, rangers experienced many changes. Many familiar faces disappeared, bringing new faces to help the team become a contender again. As the new season approaches, these are just the games that some game fans should join, as they look to be the most exciting and exciting game of the season.