So much has changed in a year for Gabe Perreault. At this time last season, he was the top prospect trying to crack the Rangers’ opening-night roster and then was the top prospect getting sent to AHL Hartford.
After finally earning a call-up in December, Perreault found a way to stick for the rest of the season — climbing the lineup until he reached the top line.
With the Blueshirts’ 2026-27 campaign set to begin Tuesday night, Perreault already has shifted from being a critical piece of the Rangers’ future to an indispensable piece of their present. Head coach Mike Sullivan kept Perreault on the left side of Mika Zibanejad and Alexis Lafrenière throughout training camp, trying to rekindle chemistry from the end of last season.
Perreault, who scored during the Blueshirts’ preseason win Friday, will attempt to build on his 12 goals and 27 points from his 49 games last season. While he was “not focused” on the potential for an eight-year extension before the NHL’s new collective bargaining agreement kicked in Sept. 16 and extinguished that possibility, Perreault, a restricted free agent at the end of the year, can envision himself carving out a long-term place with the Rangers.
“I love it here, and I could see myself being here for a long time,” Perreault told The Post on Wednesday. “But like I said, it’s gonna take care of itself, and that’s kind of the way I see it.”
The Rangers used a cautious approach with Perreault at the start of last season, opting to give the 20-year-old top minutes with the Wolf Pack after burning the first year of his entry-level deal at the end of the 2024-25 campaign. But it has started to pay off, giving the Blueshirts a prospect jolt they’ve previously lacked with their high draft picks. Perreault, a first-rounder in 2023 who went to Boston College, impressed with his vision and passing last year — an ability to thread pucks through tight windows — and said he continued to work on speed and strength in the offseason.
At the start of training camp, the Rangers coaching staff assembled videos filled with examples of how they’re trying to play. Sullivan, who took the defensive zone, said he found that Perreault kept coming up in his clips. His stick detail and positioning when the Blueshirts don’t have the puck can continue to improve, Sullivan said, and they expect Perreault to resemble a better version of himself offensively by making additional plays.
“Gabe has a year of NHL experience now,” Sullivan said. “Played really good hockey in that second half of the season. We’re hoping we can build on that.”
Across the 22 games last season in which Perreault skated with Zibanejad and Lafrenière, they produced 52 high-danger chances and 14 goals. They led all Rangers forward combinations with nearly 262 minutes together, according to Natural Stat Trick. When the calendar flipped to March, Perreault collected nine goals and 19 points across the final 23 games, flashing an ability to create chances with nifty passing while converting goals of his own.
His tally Friday against the Islanders was different. With just under seven minutes remaining in the second period, Perreault jammed the puck along the boards from behind the net and then curled around — all the while fighting for position with Alexander Romanov, the Islanders’ $50 million defenseman. As the pair reached the net-front area, Perreault lifted his stick and redirected Vladislav Gavrikov’s shot past Semyon Varlamov to give the Rangers a 4-0 lead. Only one of Perreault’s goals last season occurred after he tipped a shot, according to NHL stats.
Perhaps that captured one of the next evolutions of Perreault. Perhaps that glimpse — as he fought for positioning against an NHL regular — reaffirmed that the strength training has paid off ahead of his second full season at this level. If his immediate role with the Rangers was ever murky after not making the roster out of training camp last year, Perreault’s presence and production at the end of the season extinguished those concerns.
It all served as a tangible sign of what he could provide in a top-six role, of the notion that he could, over time, potentially live up to the lofty prospect expectations attached to being a first-rounder.
“I was fortunate to get a lot of opportunity last year,” Perreault said, “and my goal was to kind of run away with it — and I think I showcased the things I can do and obviously gain the coaches’ trust with the details in my game.”
