With the season opener set for tonight in Washington, several Rangers look to hit new milestones this season, frontlined by the longest tenured Chris Kreider. With his inclusion in the line-up tonight, Kreider looks to be just the 40th player to appear in 10 different regular season contests. He is still some ways back of Rod Gilbert‘s 18, and it doesn’t seem very likely he’ll match that mark.
Also for Kreider is the chance to become the 24th player to appear in 600 regular season games as a Ranger. Tonight will mark his 574th appearance, and he’ll be just eight games behind Gump Worsley for 24th all time.
200 goals is within reach too, with 23 tallies on the season, Kreider will become just the 12th player to reach the milestone for the franchise, and the first since the 2000-01 season when both Mark Messier and Brian Leetch broke the 200 mark. He also needs 31 assists to reach 200 assists for his career, and would become the 33rd player to achieve that milestone. In terms of points, he would need 54 over the course of the year to reach 400, to become the 17th Rangers to total 400 in a Blueshirt.
Finally, with 25 more penalty minutes, Kreider will become the 34th player to reach 500 minutes in penalties for the franchise.
Mika Zibanejad is set to play his 6th season for the Rangers, which will plce him in a tie for 86th all time. With his eight year extension, he could now challenge for some of the franchise records, but it starts with what he does this year.
From a goal perspective, he needs 14 more to reach 150 as a Ranger, which would move him past the likes of Petr Nedved (149), Ridck Nash (145, Lynn Patrick (145), Alexei Kovalev (142), Bill Fairbairn (138) and Butch Keeling (136). He needs just 3 assists to reach 150 assists, and 17 points to become the 42nd player to reach 300 points.
He has a shot at also reaching 400 games, if he managed to play in 77 of the 82 scheduled games, which would make him the 72nd player to reach that mark.
Artemi Panarin is in just his third year with the Rangers, and looks a pretty goo bet to become the 80th player to reach 200 points. He has 153 in two abbreviated seasons, and could potentially surpass the mark by some way.
Other milestones include:
Artemi Panarin: 1 goal to reach 50
Filip Chytil: 16 goals to reach 50
Ryan Strome: 9 assists to reach 100
Adam Fox: 24 assists to reach 100
Adam Fox: 15 points to reach 100
Filip Chytil: 13 assists to reach 50
Filip Chytil: 29 points to reach 100
Mika Zibanejad: 4 power play points to reach 100
Chris Kreider: 8 power play points to reach 100