2025 Rangers Season Previews: Juuso Parssinen

This article is part of an ongoing series of Rangers Season Previews, taking a close look at what we can, and should, expect from each member of the 2025-26 New York Rangers. To read other articles in this series, go here.

Hockey analysts often point out the importance of center depth when it comes to building a contending team. That makes Juuso Parssinen’s role on the 2025-26 New York Rangers a major X-factor in their hopes to rebound from last season’s all-around debacle.

With new head coach Mike Sullivan indicating that Mika Zibanejad will play on J.T. Miller’s right wing—at least to begin with—that means the Rangers’ top two centers will be Miller and Vincent Trocheck. There’s a pretty significant drop-off after that, but the third-line center, at this point, projects to be Parssinen. So, will he perform well enough to reduce that chasm between 2C and 3C?

Previous Performance

Parssinen came over to the Rangers from the Colorado Avalanche last season as part of the Ryan Lindgren and Jimmy Vesey trade. Then-head coach Peter Laviolette expressed optimism when Parssinen came to New York.

Despite this, Laviolette did not give Parssinen much of an opportunity, even though playing young commodities with something to prove would have been a better use of the Rangers’ final month-plus of what was otherwise a lost season. Parssinen only appeared in 11 of New York’s final 23 games after coming over in the trade.

In those 11 games, Parssinen tallied two goals and three assists for five points. All five points came two games over a three-game span very late in the season; he picked up three points in a 9-2 thrashing of the New York Islanders, and another two in a victory over a Florida Panthers team that was basically hibernating prior to the commencement of the postseason.

Parssinen did not even average 10 minutes of ice time per contest (9:46) after joining the Rangers. This was basically the same as what he saw in 22 games with Colorado (9:47). He got a bit more runway for a bad Nashville Predators club (12:13), but they clearly weren’t high enough on him to keep him in the fold long-term.

Taking a look under the hood, Parssinen was not exactly a highly impactful player across the 2024-25 campaign—at least not in a positive sense. Team offense dried up in his minutes, while defense saw a slight uptick in chances against. It’s not what you want.

Despite limited action and underwhelming results, general manager Chris Drury felt it prudent to sign Parssinen to a two-year contract worth $1.25 million annually. That’s not a huge amount, but it’s a curious move for an unproven player on a team that is seemingly always right up against the salary cap ceiling.

Expectations

Parssinen is still only 24 years old, so he might still have some potential. At 6-3 and 212 pounds, he has size, an element the Rangers (over)value. The actual on-ice results, though, haven’t shown too much to get excited about.

At the end of the day, what is Parssinen’s role? Not just in the lineup (where, barring a late offseason transaction, he’ll presumably begin the season as the third-line center), but in terms of what he’s actually going to provide on the ice? Is he going to be a defensive shutdown center? A good penalty killer? A reasonable secondary point producer?

He did post 25 points in 45 games as a rookie with the Predators in 2022-23, and has shown some flashes of skill. But besides that small and aging sample, and the occasional fun moment, consistent production has eluded Parssinen. Much like the Rangers too often see (or cause) with young drafted players who get to the NHL level with them, he has seemingly regressed instead of building on his rookie season.

He has not provided much reason for optimism that he can grow into any of the aforementioned roles with notable efficacy. As such, any expectations for him should be very tempered.

Predictions

Parssinen starting the season as the Rangers’ third-line center is highly probable, but only because of the team’s depth issues, and not because he has shown he can take the role and run with it. His 45-game campaign in 2022-23 is still his career high for appearances in an NHL season.

The most reasonable expectation at this point would be for Parssinen to begin the season in this role, but not provide the Blueshirts with enough production. Then they might seek other solutions for the third-line center role—internally (perhaps by shifting Zibanejad back to center, which would then leave a hole at right wing) or externally.

That doesn’t mean Parssinen couldn’t see at least spot duty on the fourth line, but overall, I’d expect him to appear in around 50-60 games and post around 15-20 points while not being much of a positive play driver. If that plays out, and the Rangers can’t find a real upgrade at 3C without subtracting from their wing depth, then 2025-26 will likely be another middling season.