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The New York Rangers appeared to find a very nifty solution to the problem of Mike Zibanejad’s declining production last season. They took him out of the middle and put him on the right wing of center J.T. Miller’s line.

The pair thrived together after Miller was acquired Jan. 31, and new coach Mike Sullivan recently indicated that the arrangement will have every chance to continue in 2025-26. Though that seems to be a good strategy, Zibanejad’s move out of the center spot comes with some worry as well.

That’s because it has fully exposed the Rangers’ glaring lack of young depth at center, not just on the NHL roster, but throughout the organization. After years of failing to draft and develop players at that position, the Rangers find themselves in a precarious position. There’s plenty of age in the middle and few, if any, realistic candidates to fill in should injury or ineffectiveness strike, let alone be viewed as the organization’s long-term future in the middle.

Rangers missed on drafting quality centers for many years

To be fair, the Rangers thought they hit on a long-term answer at the center position with Filip Chytil. But recurring concussions and head injuries marred his development, and the Rangers moved him to the Vancouver Canucks to acquire Miller last season.

Chytil looked like a find at 21st overall in the 2017 NHL Draft – one who could have helped the Rangers eventually overcome the disaster that was the seventh overall pick that year, a selection they used on center Lias Andersson. That pick will go down as one of the biggest draft busts in recent franchise history. Andersson had three goals, six assists and a minus-20 rating in 66 games for the Rangers before he was traded to the Los Angeles Kings.

Andersson has been out of the NHL since 2023. Meanwhile, some of the centers who were available at No. 7 in that draft — Nick Suzuki, Robert Thomas, Gabriel Vilardi and Josh Norris — are either stars or above-average NHL contributors.

That year’s miss on a potential cornerstone center is only the most notable lost opportunity, however. Since then, the Rangers were either not in position to address the problem or failed to prioritize it.

Starting with the 2018 draft, the Rangers selected only one center as high as the second round. That player, Karl Henriksson, the No. 58 overall pick in 2019, played in his native Sweden last season after two decent seasons with the Hartford Wolf Pack. At 24, he doesn’t look like a player with an impactful NHL future.

The Rangers selected four centers in the third round in that time frame: Oliver Tarnstrom (2020), Jayden Grubbe and Ryder Korczak (both in 2021) and Bryce McConnell-Barker (2022). The quartet appears to be a near-total flop.

Tarnstrom, now 23, never made it over from Sweden to North America, and the Rangers’ rights to him expired. Grubbe was traded to the Edmonton Oilers in 2023 and he spent two unremarkable seasons with Bakersfield of the American Hockey League. The Rangers dealt Korczak to the Tampa Bay Lightning in January, and after 10 games with Tampa’s AHL affiliate, he signed to play this season in Slovakia.

There’s still hope for McConnell-Barker. He scored seven goals and had eight assists in 68 games as a rookie pro with the Wolf Pack last season. None of the four players have made it to the NHL.

There are a few bright spots. The organization is high on 2022 fourth-round pick Noah Laba, who could be an option to be called up to the Rangers this season. The club added impressive prospect Carey Terrance, a second-round selection in 2023 by the Anaheim Ducks, in the Chris Kreider trade in June. There’s also Dylan Roobroeck (sixth round, 2023), who boasts size at 6-foot-7 and 205 pounds and is coming off an impressive rookie pro season with Hartford, when he had 20 goals and 14 assists in 72 games.

That trio, however, are viewed as future bottom-six contributors at best. Without a rising center prospect pushing toward the NHL who might be capable of eventually graduating into the Rangers top six, the club’s deficiencies down the middle have become apparent.

Juuso Parssinen, Noah Laba, Dylan Roobroeck questionable candidates to center third line

Noah Laba — Photo courtesy Hartford Wolf Pack

While top two centers Miller and Vincent Trocheck remain highly effective players, each is 32 years old. Zibanejad, who is also 32, may well have begun a later-career resurgence moving to the wing, but that has be qualified by the fact that it happened because he apparently couldn’t handle the demands of playing center effectively anymore.

Also, with Zibanejad on the wing, there’s a sizeable hole in the middle of the third line.

The organization might be high on Juuso Parssinen, acquired last season in the Ryan Lindgren trade with the Colorado Avalanche, but he’s largely unproven. The 24-year-old is on his third team and has never played more than 48 games in any one NHL season. After he was acquired by the Rangers late last season, Parssinen was a healthy scratch 12 times, which is more than the number of games he played with them (11).

If Parssinen fails to nail down the 3C spot in training camp, the Blueshirts could perhaps turn to Laba or Roobroeck (Terrance is only 20 and has yet to play in the AHL), but asking either rookie to handle such an important role feels like a crapshoot. Perhaps with more experience, Laba projects as a bottom-six answer at center.

The other options for Sullivan look very much like the ones that predecessor Peter Laviolette had: Put Zibanejad back in the middle, which might significantly weaken the top six, or move up someone like veteran Sam Carrick, an effective fourth-line player who’s completely miscast on the third unit.

There’s always the Jonny Brodzinski option, too. The 32-year-old seems best suited as the 13th forward, trusted to step in as needed. He did score a career-high 12 goals last season, so maybe he could hold down the 3C spot — or share it with Parssinen — until an upgrade is available ahead of the NHL Trade Deadline in early March.

To be sure, most organizations aren’t exactly overflowing with future top-six center prospects. Elite centers represent one of the biggest premium assets in the NHL, and the best ones tend to be drafted fairly high. Such players are difficult to find.

That said, obtaining them lower in the draft certainly can be — and is — done. Lightning stars Brayden Point and Anthony Cirelli were picked in the third round. Logan Stankoven of the Carolina Hurricanes was a second-rounder. There’s also Shane Pinto of the Ottawa Senators (second round) and on the older side, the Calgary Flames’ Blake Coleman (third round).

But where the Rangers stand at the center position right now has the potential to become a full-blown crisis, perhaps as soon as this season.