Chris Kreider's Return Sets Stage for Emotional Night at Madison Square Garden
For the first time in his career, Chris Kreider returns to MSG wearing different colors for a night that promises to be heavy, heartfelt, and unforgettable.
For the first time in his 14 year NHL career, Chris Kreider will lace up the skates in the visiting locker room of Madison Square Garden.
He’ll take the ice on the opposite side of the New York Rangers logo at center ice, and he’ll assume position right next to Alexis Lafrenière or another one of his former teammates. He may even take a face-off against his best friend, Mika Zibanejad.
It will be weird. It’ll be heavy. It’ll be a moment of recognition for a player who has certainly earned it but seldom accepted on account of his team-first mindset.
Anytime a player makes their first visit back to play their former team there’s always a video tribute and a round of applause to go with it. Typically, it’s quick, a minimal part of the game that more times than not that might not even make the TV broadcast. But in situations like Kreider’s, where the player spent close to 900 games with the franchise, playing a part in so many key moments in the team’s recent history, it will be a deserved interruption to an otherwise meaningless game.
Whether Kreider was one of your all time favorite Rangers, just another name on the roster, or anywhere in between, to suggest he isn’t an essential part of Rangers’ history is just flat out inaccurate. Kreider holds the franchise record for most power play goals in a season, and he’s tied for most power play goals all time—although will likely be passed by Zibanejad, perhaps as soon as this season. He’s fourth all time in shorthanded goals, second all time in game-winning goals, 11th all time in points, and third all time in total goals. Only eight players in franchise history have suited up for more games with the New York Rangers—five of which have their numbers hanging in the rafters.
It’s always an interesting debate whether or not certain players should have their number retired. After all, the league has been going on for over a hundred years, and there are, by definition, only so many numbers available to be worn. However, aside from Brad Park and perhaps Ron Greschner, there isn’t an active current or former Ranger who deserves to have his number hang in the rafters more than Chris Kreider. This is a player that, literally from the moment he made his debut, has been a playoff performer. Every important playoff moment this team had for nearly a decade involved him.
Granted none of those resulted in ultimate glory, but the fact of the matter is the Rangers are not the team they were from 2013-2024 without Chris Kreider. Take the Rangers' most recent trip to the Easter Conference Final. Kreider single-handedly willed the Rangers to a win in Game 6 to clinch the series. Without his hat trick to complete the come-from-behind win, the Rangers felt very well at risk of blowing a 3-0 series lead, and who knows what cascading effects that disaster would have caused.
Ironically, Chris Kreider will make his first return to the Garden on the two year anniversary of the game where he tied and then passed Adam Graves on the Rangers all time scoring list. To make it even more serendipitous, it was the Anaheim Ducks who the Rangers beat 5-2 that night for Kreider to cement that place in Rangers history.
Chris Feldman
Two years later a lot has changed, and Kreider now leads a young Ducks team in Anaheim where he’s third on the team in goals and fifth in points. It’s there he will finish out the last two years of the big seven year extension he signed with the Rangers back in 2021 that many folks expected would make him a Ranger for life. By all accounts, he has completely rejuvenated his game there and is playing a key role on Anaheim's top line alongside Leo Carlsson and Troy Terry.
While it may be tough for some fans to see him have the success he's having with a different team, it's well deserved. For 14 years, Kreider has represented the Rangers and the game of hockey with class, dedication, and honest effort. From what he's done in Anaheim so far, it's a testament to the top of the line player he is and the tremendous career he has paved for himself.
Heading into his return to MSG, Kreider has 911 career games played in which he's posted 339 goals and 264 assists for a total of 603 points. In 123 playoff games, he's collected 48 goals and 28 assists for 76 total points. At 34 years of age, it's entirely possible that he still has plenty in the tank that will earn him at least one more contract when his current one expires in 2028.
With the Olympics coming up (hopefully?) and the Ducks still atop the Pacific Division standings, Kreider will have as good a chance as any to check off the two glaring holes on his resume—an international tournament championship and a Stanley Cup.
For now, he's surely in for a special, memorable, and emotional night at the World's Most Famous Arena.
