Oliver Bjorkstrand didn’t think much about the validation of it all, about the meaning of returning to the Rangers top six in the middle of Saturday’s game after a demotion to the fourth line and a struggle for ice time. Phrases such as “sure” and “I don’t know” and, ultimately, “I guess” filled his answer.
But after a 10-game stretch in which Bjorkstrand averaged under 10 minutes of ice time per match, the invisibility of Pavel Dorofeyev — at least when goals are concerned — led to another chance. Bjorkstrand responded to head coach Mike Sullivan’s initial switch with five goals and six points while with the bottom six and, as usual, the second power-play unit.
And when the Rangers entered their five-day break this week, Bjorkstrand had emerged as one of their most productive 5-on-5 players.
He sat tied with Alexis Lafrenière and Gabe Perreault for the team lead in even-strength goals (four), and he has the fourth-best expected goals per 60 minutes at 5-on-5 (0.99) on the Blueshirts.
The new-look second line was effective in their loss Monday, and by skating alongside Tye Kartye and J.T. Miller, Bjorkstrand, with a shot that Sullivan called “one of his greatest assets” in training camp, has a chance to thrive as that unit’s finisher.
“You get bumped down, and you want to find a way back,” Bjorkstrand told The Post. “Now you get that opportunity. … Obviously if you get bumped up, it’s because you’re doing good things and they think you can help out in that way. So in that sense, yeah, it’s good.”
The Rangers brought Bjorkstrand in on a one-year, $4.5 million deal with the bet that he could recapture the scoring consistency that defined his ledger until 2025-26.
A 12th-year veteran, he hit at least 20 goals in six of seven seasons from 2018-19 through 2024-25, but that number dipped to just 12 last year with the Lightning. Bjorkstrand said he struggled finishing chances, and he only had 17 high-danger scoring chances last season, according to Natural Stat Trick — and he’s already up to 13 through 14 games with the Rangers.
“Just not getting the puck off the right way, hitting the spots,” Bjorkstrand said of last year. “Right now, I definitely have a more comfortable feeling when I get a chance, so I think that’s a part of it. I could’ve had chances like that last year, and I wasn’t hitting the spots.”
Bjorkstrand converted a pair of goals, including one on the power play, against the Islanders on Oct. 6, added another two against the Ducks and then tallied his fifth goal during the Rangers’ recent trip to Canada. It didn’t take long for Bjorkstrand to make an impact in his first game back with the top six, either.
When a pass from Kartye deflected off Miller’s skate and in, Bjorkstrand had cleared out a Kings player near the net to create the lane. That line led the Rangers with five high-danger scoring chances and led their top three lines with an expected goals for percentage of 75.06, according to Natural Stat Trick.
On a night when the Blueshirts allowed six goals and had their defensive flaws exposed again, Bjorkstrand still finished with a team-best plus-two.
Bjorkstrand said that skating with players like Kartye and Miller benefits his style. Throughout his career, he realized that his production tends to come with linemates who play simply and move their feet.
But Bjorkstrand’s ability to serve as the finisher, while also getting involved in puck battles, is something they’ve lacked with that group given Dorofeyev’s shaky start in the first year of his $77 million deal.
Bjorkstrand’s chance could be fleeting, though. Dorofeyev, of course, was brought in to score goals after collecting 72 across the last two seasons with the Golden Knights, but instead posts and near-misses have defined a season-opening stretch featuring just three goals.
Given Dorofeyev’s streakiness in the past, that could quickly change.
But this has also now turned into a window for Bjorkstrand to keep playing his way into a larger role, to force Sullivan into tough decisions regarding the options for Miller’s wings even when Dorofeyev inevitably finds a scoring rhythm. Bjorkstrand’s 16:12 on Monday was his most ice time of the season.
“It’s gonna play itself out,” Sullivan said of Bjorkstrand’s role earlier this month, when he was skating with the fourth line. “It’s a long season, and that’s a conversation that I’ve had with him. … As you know, nothing’s ever etched in stone and things change and it’s a long season.”
And just weeks later, the crux of Sullivan’s message became Bjorkstrand’s reality.
