Will Rangers' Gabe Perreault make an immediate impact after signing entry-level deal?
Gabe Perreault on the ice at the Rangers 2024 Prospect Development Camp, Tuesday, July 2, 2024. Credit: Corey Sipkin
The Rangers’ chase for a playoff spot is getting a boost in the final 2 1⁄2 weeks.
On Monday, a day after Boston College was eliminated from the NCAA hockey tournament via a 3-1 loss to defending champion Denver, Eagles star forward Gabe Perreault signed a three-year, entry-level contract with the Blueshirts. The 5-11, 178-pound winger will report to New York and could be in the lineup when the Rangers face the Minnesota Wild on Wednesday at Madison Square Garden.
The Rangers have signed other prospects after the conclusion of their college seasons and sent them to their Hartford farm team in the AHL, where they’ve played the rest of the season on amateur tryout agreements.
But in Perreault’s case, with the Rangers needing all the help they can get as they chase the second wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference, general manager Chris Drury was willing to burn the first year of his rookie contract for the final eight games of the Rangers’ season.
The deal will carry a salary-cap hit of $947,667 and Perreault will be a restricted free agent in the summer of 2027.
It’s a move the Rangers had little choice but to make. They are tied with the Canadiens in points (77) for the final wild-card playoff spot but have one fewer game remaining. They also have two fewer games remaining than the Blue Jackets (75 points) and one fewer than the Red Wings and the Islanders (each with 74 points).
The Rangers hope Perreault, 19, their first-round pick (23rd overall) in the 2023 NHL Draft, can add a spark to a team that is 2-4-1 in its last seven games. The son of former NHLer Yanic Perreault had 16 goals and 32 assists in 37 games as a sophomore for Boston College. He was nominated for the Hobey Baker Award, given to the best player in college hockey.
Perreault was a member of the U.S. team that won the World Junior Championships in 2024 and 2025 and also was on the squad that won the World Under-18 Championship in 2023.
“He’s got an elite hockey sense and offensive instincts,’’ Rangers scouting director John Lilley said in 2023 after the club drafted him. “He just stood out with the overall skill level.”
The biggest question about Perreault at that time was whether his lack of size — he was listed at 165 pounds when the Rangers drafted him — would be a drawback. But he’s put on weight in the nearly two years since then, and his coach at BC, former Rangers assistant coach Greg Brown, told Newsday last summer that Perreault’s size would never be a problem.
“He is going to be able to manage,” Brown said. “Gabe has a great ability to get to the inside.”
Can he be a difference-maker for the Rangers when every game essentially is a playoff game for them? That remains to be seen. But the Rangers had nothing to lose by signing him now and throwing him right into the fire. They need all hands on deck to get into the playoffs, and signing Perreault gives them two more hands.
Colin Stephenson covers the Rangers for Newsday. He has spent more than two decades covering the NHL and just about every sports team in the New York metropolitan area.
