The New York Rangers clinch Presidents’ Trophy

It is the fifth time in franchise history that the Rangers will finish with the most points in the NHL, and the first time since the 2014-15 season, coincidentally the last time the Blueshirts finished atop the division.

The Rangers have had a cast of characters contributing to the team’s success this season. Most notably the man that is making Hart Trophy voters sweat, Artemi Panarin.

The Breadman leads the team with 48 goals and 118 points, 41 more points than the man who is second on Rangers in scoring, Vincent Trochek. Panarin is fourth in the NHL in scoring, just a few points behind the Tampa Bay Lightning’s Nikita Kucherov (141).

The Blueshirts also possess one of the top goaltending tandems in the league. 2022 Vezina Trophy winner Igor Shesterkin is playing in top form with the playoffs in sight, sitting seventh in the NHL in wins (37). The team has also seen a resurgence in veteran netminder Jonathan Quick. After being the third-string goaltender on the Vegas Golden Knights team that won the Stanley Cup last spring, the former Los Angeles King has been an excellent supporting character for Shesterkin.

Despite being the best team in the league, history is not on the Rangers’ side. This is the 37th time the Presidents’ Trophy has been awarded since it was introduced for the 1985-86 season. Of the 36 teams to have taken home the trophy, only eight have gone on to lift Lord Stanely’s Cup.

The Rangers were one of the exceptions, as the 1994 team won the franchise’s fourth and, so far, last Stanley Cup. However, the other two times they won the Presidents’ Trophy*—1992 and 2015—the Rangers lost in the conference finals.

The Blueshirts still have to wait to see who they will face in the opening round of the playoffs, as the battle for the final Wild Card spot in the Eastern Conference is ongoing.

*The Rangers finished first in the league in 1942, when there was no award for best record