2025 Rangers Season Previews: Sam Carrick

When Ronco founder Ron Popeil pitched the Showtime Rotisserie chicken oven in infomercials, he punctuated his pitch with the phrase "set it, and forget it." The fourth line center on your hockey team should be a lot like that—set it, and forget it. The New York Rangers set it before last season, bringing in the veteran Sam Carrick on a three-year, $1 million AAV contract. From there, they could largely forget it—in the positive way. Carrick was what you'd expect from a $1 million-per-year fourth line center. The questions about Carrick and his role on this team coming in to the 2025-26 season, however, have far more to do with the other choices this organization has made then they have to do with Carrick himself, the hockey player.

Previous Performance

Carrick tied for second-most games played in the 2024-25 season, lacing up the skates in 80 games for the Blueshirts. It was the most he'd played in any previous campaign with Toronto, Anaheim, or Edmonton. His 6G-14A-20P line was a career high in assists and in points. As Chris Feldman noted in his 2025 Rangers Report Card on Carrick, comparing him favorably to what Barclay Goodrow had been brought in to do before being waived and claimed by the San Jose Sharks:

His 20 points are not only more than Godorow had as a Ranger last year, but significantly more than what Goodrow contributed top the San Jose Sharks this season. For as much of a stir the decision to waive Goodrow caused, it was the right business decision and not particularly close. Carrick may not have the championship pedigree that Goodrow came with, but he was fresh off a visit to last year’s Stanley Cup Final, which does count for something. Unfortunately for him and the Rangers, it wouldn’t pay dividends this season as the team missed the playoffs by about six points. 

The only time last year that you couldn't "forget it" about Carrick was as the calendar flipped to the new year, as he posted eight points in the month of January, including an overtime game-winner against the New Jersey Devils.

It was one of those crazy runs by a depth player that prompts you to joke about trading him straight up for Connor McDavid to further amuse yourself—which we did plenty here.

When the season wrapped, Carrick took home the Rangers' Players' Player award, as a testament to how the rest of this team feels about Carrick's presence on and off the ice.

Expectations

This offseason, it looked for a while like the two loved depth/role players in Carrick and Jonny Brodzinski were on a collision course over limited playing time. With early assumptions that Mika Zibanejad would return to center, after playing most of the end of the previous season on J.T. Miller's wing, one of the few positional questions about this team was fourth line center.

We know, as already discussed, that Carrick is loved by his teammates, and assumedly also appreciated by management. Perhaps the only other non-superstar player who experience a similar level of appreciation is Jonny Brodzinski. As Vince Mercogliano told Joe and I on a recent episode of Blueshirt Bandwidth, Brodzinski is a guy the Rangers really love, not only for the level of compete he brings on the ice, but for his leadership and shepherding of young players off it.

With the recent announcement that Mika would at least start training camp and, presumably, the season on J.T. Miller's wing, that starts stretching Rangers' center depth chart. First, it'll mean that Juuso Parssinen will get some runway to center the third line. But it also means that the Rangers bottom two lines will be centered by some combination of Parssinen, Carrick, and Brodzinski. The effusive praise the Rangers organization has for the latter two notwithstanding, that's not exactly a depth chart to write home about.

Given their comparative usage last year, you'd probably expect to see Carrick start the season as the pivot between the twin towers of Matt Rempe and Adam Edstrom, with Brodzinski starting the year as the extra forward. Given what we saw from this trio in about 74 minutes of action last year, you'd have feel pretty good about that fourth line. Carrick is a savvy veteran leader between two young, but incredibly physically gifted wingers. They have a real opportunity to create havoc when they're on the ice together, pressing on the forecheck, playing physical, and wearing down the opposition they're out there against.

Predictions

80GP—7G—15A—22P

While, as we've established, the Rangers clearly love what they have in both Carrick and Brodzinski, I think they view Jonny B. as more of the plug-and-play guy in the bottom six (and hopefully not ever this year as a top-six winger, because this season should not be as chaotic as last) when there's an injury or when they want to give a night off to someone like Taylor Raddysh. Having Brodzinski around as the 13th forward will keep him in the locker room and keep his positive influence on the kids around, too.

That would mean having the run of the place on the fourth line for Carrick. Based on last year's performance, and with the assumption that both Rempe and Edstrom will be healthy and both will be improved, I think Carrick has a good chance to put up even better numbers than he did last season.

If that fourth line can become a menace, it'll go a long way to raising the floor on the 2025-26 New York Rangers.