With the NHL’s new CBA changes eliminating eight-year contracts, making seven-year contracts the longest a player can re-sign with his own team, along with the salary cap increase, we saw multiple young players sign multi-year contract extensions before they were set to hit restricted free agency.
Notably absent from that group of young players was Gabe Perreault, who is set to become a restricted free agent next offseason and did not sign a contract extension with the New York Rangers.
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Perreault seems to be comfortable playing the final season of his rookie deal without an extension in place.
“I’m not focused on that at all,” Perreault said about whether or not he’s still thinking about a future contract extension. “I’ll kind of let my agent handle that, and we’re just going to focus on day-by-day and having a big year. It’ll take care of itself.”
When asked about contract negotiations between the Blueshirts brass and Perreault’s camp, Rangers president and general manager Chris Drury declined to go into details.
After starting the 2025-26 campaign with the Hartford Wolf Pack of the American Hockey League, Perreault burst onto the NHL scene in December, staying with the Rangers for the remainder of the season.
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In 49 games, the 21-year-old forward recorded 12 goals, 15 assists, and 27 points while averaging 15:59 minutes.
Over the course of the season, it was evident that Perreault continued to build confidence, which allowed him to make more of an offensive impact.
“I think my game progressed a lot during the year,” Perreault said. “The details, getting more confident, making more plays, kind of knowing when to make a play, I kind of think I grew a lot in that. I grew in the details of my game defensively too and on the forecheck. Those were the big things I focused on.”
By the end of the season, the 2024 first-round pick was putting his high hockey IQ and playmaking skills on display, eventually stepping into a top-six role.
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Through observing the progression of Perreault from behind the bench, Mike Sullivan feels that the game was able to slow down for him as he grew more accustomed to the NHL game.
“I think the biggest thing for Gabe was the adjustment to the speed and the pace of the NHL game and the size and strength of the players,” Sullivan said. “I think he’s adjusted to the pace of the game and I think the game has slowed down in his brain, which is one of the challenges every young player has to overcome. When they are trying to make the NHL.”
A large portion of Perreault’s success came when he played on a line with Alexis Lafrenière and Mika Zibanejad.
Last season, that line outscored opponents 14-10 at five-on-five while they had a 48.57 percent expected goal rate according to Natural Stat Trick.
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Through the first few days of training camp, Sullivan has reassembled the Perreault-Zibanejad-Lafrenière line with the hopes they can emulate their previous triumph.
“I think we’re all kind of smart players. We kind of think the game pretty similarly, and I think we kind of bring something a little bit different to the line,” Perreault said. “At the same time, there are similarities, and I think we clicked well. Those guys are easy to play with for me, so it went really well at the end of the year, and hopefully we can keep it going.”
Entering a contract year, it’s critical that Perreault continues to progress his game and take a big leap in his first full NHL season with the goal of earning a long-term extension and becoming a cornerstone piece for the Rangers.
“Our expectation is that he’s going to build on the season he had last year,” Sullivan said. “Our expectation is that he will build on that (last season) and grow.”
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