2026 Rangers Report Card: Jaroslav Chmelar

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.

Expectations

This year was expected to be another developmental year for the giant winger from Czechia. After signing with the New York Rangers in 2024 and joining the Hartford Wolf Pack, Chmelar has now skated in a full season and change. His professional career has had its ups and downs, but he has shown many encouraging traits that suggest he could have a future in the NHL.

A successful 2025-26 season for Jaroslav Chmelar would mean staying in training camp until close to the end and, when assigned to Hartford, taking a step forward in his offensive play and production in the AHL. Whether it warrants a call-up to the big leagues was irrelevant. Chmelar’s focus needed to be on contributing to the Wolf Pack and on addressing the flaws and concerns in his game to improve his chances of success in the NHL.

Performance

NHL: 28 GP | 4 G | 2 A | 6 PTS | -2 | 23 SOG | 11 PIM

AHL: 46 GP | 8 G | 17 A | 25 PTS | -7 | 42 PIM

Chmelar was cut early from the Rangers’ training camp, but that wasn’t a surprise to most. The Rangers have a deep depth chart at winger, and the addition of two veteran forwards in Taylor Raddysh and Conor Sheary made Chmelar’s already uphill battle to stick around even steeper. So, yes, it was always expected that Chmelar’s journey would start with the Hartford Wolf Pack, though probably earlier than he would have liked.

Historically, Chmelar had averaged 0.39 PPG in the AHL, but in his first stretch of games and throughout the season, his production immediately ticked up to nearly 0.55 PPG. While this was likely the result of Chmelar being more acclimated to the pace of professional hockey and having the luxury of being used more frequently in offensive situations, it was also immediately clear he had put in a lot of work to improve during the offseason.

Chmelar was always a big kid, and he towered over his peers wherever he went, whether in Czechia, Finland, or as a Friar at Providence College. Typically, players his size are weaker skaters, but Chmelar was a rare combination of size and raw skating ability. He wasn’t going to blow anyone away, but the kid could surprise you. Still, he had some work to do on his edges and acceleration, and when he showed up in Hartford this year, it was clear he had done a lot of that work over the summer. The big winger showed he had the speed to break away from defenders when needed and was overall quicker to pucks and the net. Though a surprise to many, his improvement, along with his early-season performance, earned him his first NHL call-up.

Chmelar made his Rangers debut in November, playing both games in a back-to-back. His ice time was severely limited, with a high of eight minutes against the New York Islanders, but he still found a way to make his presence known. Against the Detroit Red Wings, Chmelar dropped the gloves and landed several haymakers, decisively winning his first NHL bout against Travis Hamonic. Both his teammates and coaches expressed surprise and admiration for how he handled himself.

Sent back down to Hartford, Chmelar picked up where he left off, scoring six points in 10 games and earning yet another call-up to the NHL. This time, it lasted four games before the Rangers sent him down again in December—a move that preceded the promotion of Gabe Perreault back to the NHL. This time, Chmelar stayed in Connecticut’s capital city, playing until March, when injuries prompted the depleted Rangers to reach for bodies.

Chmelar was expected to be a stopgap until J.T. Miller returned to the lineup and/or the team wanted to give another prospect a whirl on the carousel. But the hulking winger gave them every reason to keep him in the lineup. Joining the bottom six, Chmelar brought energy and physicality to a lackluster Rangers lineup. In his first game back, he grabbed the puck in the neutral zone, skated down toward the Toronto Maple Leafs net, and potted his first-ever NHL goal.

Chmelar would stick with the Rangers for the rest of the season, and in those 22 games, he’d score 4 goals and 2 assists. An intangible Chmelar brought to the lineup was his infectious positive attitude. His presence and joy in celebrating not just his own but his teammates’ success were a beautiful reminder of the joy this game can bring in the midst of an arduous season. This increased tenfold when his longtime friend and roommate Adam Sykora was called up to the NHL.

Let’s face it, though: No player stays on an NHL team because they’re “fun.” In fact, you could make a compelling case that being fun would motivate James Dolan and the Rangers not to give you a spot on their roster. That said, it clearly wasn’t just his positivity and vibrant youthful energy that kept Chmelar around. In games, he consistently showed off his strength, skating ability, and improved awareness to read the game. Chmelar wasn’t just keeping up with other NHL players. At times, he pulled away from them. According to NHL Edge, Chmelar hit a top speed of 23.25 mph, good enough to be in the 91st percentile among all skaters in the NHL.

Grades

Author Grade: A

Banter Consensus: B+

Final Evaluation

Given what was expected of him this year, namely to improve in the AHL with the Hartford Wolf Pack, Chmelar’s accomplishments are nothing short of outstanding. He worked hard during the offseason to improve his game in almost every area, then put those skills to work to help the Wolf Pack and because of it earned a consistent spot on the Rangers’ roster as the season came to an end.

Listed at both 6-4 and 6-5 on his recent team's websites, Chmelar has a lot of what you can’t teach: size and the willingness to use it. If he can carve out a career as a bottom-six player, with the possibility of chipping in 30-40 points a season, the Rangers may have found a steal in the fifth round of the 2021 NHL draft.

It’s hard to say whether Chmelar will make the team next season, but after his first taste of NHL hockey, the young winger is more motivated than ever to put in more work and come back even better. There are many unknowns as the team navigates their “retool” into what is predicted to be an eventful summer, but what is known is that the bar for Chmelar's expectations and future success has been raised significantly.