2026 Rangers Report Card: Braden Schneider

This article is part of an ongoing series of Rangers Report Cards, grading the performance of each member of the 2025-26 New York Rangers. To view more report cards in this series, go here.

To read the Season Preview for Braden Schneider, go here. 

Braden Schneider has played an abundance of hockey since making his league debut in the 2021-22 season. Despite only being 24, he’s been through it all with the Rangers—drafted towards the end of a rebuild, helped them get out of that and into the Eastern Conference Final twice, and now finds himself a big question mark as the team navigates a retool.

Is he still a player the organization truly covets, or will he be the next Ranger shipped out of town? 

Expectations

While there were reasons to be optimistic about the expectations for Schneider this season, there was one big variable to take into consideration. At the end of the 2024-25 season, Schneider revealed he had been playing parts of the last two seasons with a torn labrum. Once the Rangers were mathematically eliminated in the tire fire of a season they had the year before last, Schneider was finally given the green light to get the necessary surgery to fix his shoulder. From what we knew, he was set to make a full recovery ahead of this season, meaning there was no excuse for it not to be the year he finally took a step forward and solidified himself as an established part of this team’s top four defense. 

Performance

82 GP | 2 G | 16 A | 18 PTS | -5 | 102 SOG | 26 PIM

On the one hand, Schneider was one of just two Rangers defensemen to appear in all 82 games this season (Vladislav Gavrikov being the other). On the other hand, Schneider really only saw an increase in his usage out of necessity, and despite opportunities on the top pairing he had a slight drop off in his overall point production. Granted, his career high of 21 points came just last season, and every year prior to that was right in that neighborhood (19, 18, and 11 in half a season's worth of NHL games, respectively).

Point production also isn’t the end-all, be-all of what he brings to the table. But it does raise a valid question about Schneider: What is it that he actually does bring to the table? 

In his draft year, Schneider was praised as a physical, right-handed defenseman with size who can be considered a two-way defenseman with more focus on the defensive size of the game. He drew comparisons to the likes of Brandon Carlo, Colton Parayko, and, of course, Jacob Trouba, even being dubbed “mini-Trouba” in the early stages of his career. In theory, these were all encouraging things for the Rangers who, at the time, had a well-established defensive core that balanced youth and experience. Six years later, Schneider’s place on this team is the subject of more questions than answers. 

When deployed effectively, solid two-way defensemen are extremely valuable to any team in this league. You love to have a guy that can be trusted more often than not in your own end of the ice, and can chip in offensively every now and then. The problem is, when the offense isn’t there and the mistakes grow more common than they should, it begins to feel like they need to pick a lane. I wrote a similar story about this with K’Andre Miller, suggesting that the Rangers needed him to find an identity on this team. Less than a year later, he was traded. Now, Schneider could face a similar fate. 

Heading into the season, the Rangers reiterated how they valued Schneider, saying that even if he isn’t always playing in the top four, he is viewed as a top-four defenseman on the Rangers. The semantics of that aside, it was obvious the Rangers needed Schneider to be a top four defenseman on paper for this team.  When I wrote the Season Preview piece on Schneider, I said

Schneider is one of the few Rangers defensemen the team seems comfortable playing on either side. A right-handed shot, Schneider is a natural right side defenseman, but actually got some run at the start of last season on the left side when Ryan Lindgren went down with an injury in preseason. By all accounts, Schneider did well in that role, but as we all know, the wheels quickly fell off the Rangers season by the time November rolled around. With Adam Fox and Will Borgen seemingly locked into the right side on the top two pairs, along with the addition of Scott Morrow via the K'Andre Miller trade, there is a chance that Schneider could start the season on the left side of the second pair with Borgen. That makes it all the more important for him to try and focus more of his game on the offensive side of play seeing as Borgen is more of a defensive minded player. 

Schneider did spend some time playing on the left side—about 152 minutes in all, and it did not work out to the coaching staff's liking. Now, just under 14 of those minutes were with Scott Morrow, and the majority were with Will Bogren, who is another Rangers defenseman who finds himself in a bit of no man’s land. I understand the premise that this coaching regime chooses not to deploy defensemen on their off-hand, even if I strongly disagree with it. But that doesn't change the fact that Schneider did not have an impactful season.

He spent more time with Gavrikov than any other defense partner, mostly because of the injury to Adam Fox. In 518 minutes of ice time together, the two pieced together a 41.1 xGF%. To me, that's the most telling of all his numbers from MoneyPuck. His best xGF% came in 188 minutes with Urho Vaakanainen as they had 48.2 percent. In 251 minutes with Matthew Robertson, they had an xGF% of 47.9. His 138 minutes with Will Borgen resulted in a 44.2 percent and 104 minutes with Drew Fortescue just under that with 43.2. percent There's obviously more to consider when evaluating a player than this stat alone, but it's not encouraging in the slightest when a player fails to impress you both analytically and through the eye test.

At this point in his career, Schneider should have established himself as a confident second-pairing defensemen on this Rangers team. Had he managed to accomplish that, there is a world in which you could be content with a top four of Gavrikov, Fox and Robertson, Schneider. The problem is, nothing about Schneider’s performance this season proved that he is anything more than a slightly-above-average third pairing defenseman with the Rangers, as things currently stand. 

Grades

Author's Grade: D-

Banter Consensus: D+

Final Evaluation

I’ve always been a fan of Schneider. But after the last two seasons, I’d certainly say I’m more interested in seeing what the Rangers could get for him on the trade market instead of seeing him on their own blue line. Schneider turns 25 this season. Have we seen him at his absolute ceiling? I’d hope not, but I’m starting to believe it to be the case. If Schneider couldn’t thrive in a situation where he was deployed on the team’s top pairing, with an experienced partner as responsible as Gavrikov, I just don’t see the Rangers getting more out of him in any other context. If Schneider wants to reach his ceiling, a change of scenery may be necessary. 

Schneider is an RFA this summer, which means unless a team sends him an offer sheet, he’ll remain Rangers property. And, at the very least, he'll re-up on his qualifying offer. Depending on who the Rangers draft and sign this offseason, there may be a spot for him on this team moving forward. Or there may not. If there is, another bridge deal wouldn't be the worst thing in the world—although I do worry the Rangers are in love with the player they think he is and don’t see the player he’s actually been for them more recently, and will end up signing him to a ridiculous long term deal. 

As things currently stand, the Rangers have one of the top defense pairings in the league and two third pairings behind them:

Gavirkov - Fox
Robertson - Schneider
Fortescue - Borgen
Vaakanainen - Iorio/Morrow

As I mentioned in Matthew Robertson’s report card, the Rangers are one or two signings and a draft pick away from taking jobs away from current rostered defensemen, Braden Schneider included. If the Rangers want to put the wheels of a retool in motion, there’s only room for one of Schneider and Will Borgen on this roster. For whatever reason, the Rangers signed Borgen to a five-year extension loaded with trade protection that just began this past season. That full no-trade clause turns into a limited 15-team no-trade clause this season, so if they were to move one of the two, they could move Borgen. However, in the interest of maximizing a potential return, Schneider is the more valuable asset. 

If anything is possible, signing Rasmus Andersson, Mario Ferraro, and drafting Carson Carels would give you reason to keep Schneider, assuming you can move Borgen. That right there would likely set you up for the best possible core of defense moving forward with mind to what’s currently available. But until that possibility comes to fruition, the Rangers only have a use for Schneider if he's surrounded by the right supporting cast.