The Rangers appear to be mostly done with their offseason, pending a decision with Braden Schneider. So let’s transition back to 2025-2026 report cards, kicking off the defense with Adam Fox. Fox had a solid season, though he only played 55 games due to injury. Even though he missed a chunk of games, he still finished with 9 goals, a team leading 44 assists, and 53 points. Over an 82 game pace, that’s nearly a point per game pace that probably would have led the team in points and assists.
The story of Adam Fox’s 2025-2026 season actually has nothing to do with his NHL play, and everything to do with Bill Guerin’s snub and utter disrespect for Fox regarding his exclusion from Team USA. While the team did win gold, Fox was essentially kicked to the curb because of a rough four game stretch in a random exhibition tournament the year before. Good result for Team USA, wrong process by Guerin, and unnecessary drama for Adam Fox and the New York Rangers.
Olympics snub aside, this season was yet another example of how much Adam Fox means to the Rangers. When he was hurt the Rangers play at 5v5 and on the powerplay completely tanked. Braden Schneider was tasked to fill in as the 1RD, but he’s not Adam Fox. That’s not an insult. It goes to show you that Fox is far better than people give him credit, and is possibly the most underrated player on the Rangers and perhaps in the NHL.
Fox is not without fault, but his overall body of work is elite and evident that he is a top defenseman in the NHL. Despite the dumpster fire that was the 2025-2026 New York Rangers, Fox still manage to have stellar play driving numbers and stellar defensive numbers. His main problems last season revolved around defensive zone exits, mainly when he wasn’t the player retrieving the puck.
I draw that conclusion based on his DZ retrievals numbers, which show strong zone exit success of retrieval, meaning Fox retrieved the puck off a dump in. His failed exits per 60 (the lone red bar in this entire exercise) shows that when he’s not adept at exiting the zone in other situations. It’s an interesting nuance to his defensive zone game that should be watched more closely next season.
If you remain unconvinced how good Adam Fox truly is, then we can simply look at how the Rangers perform with and without him on the ice. In all situations–which means including powerplay and penalty kill–the Rangers scored 86 goals and allowed just 43 goals against with Fox on the ice. The Rangers scored 235 goals (238 minus the 3 shootout winners) last season. That’s 36% of the Rangers goals scored with Fox on the ice, and he missed 27 games!
The Rangers allowed 249 goals (250 minus the one shootout winner against). Again Fox’s 43 goals against with him on the ice accounts for a measly 17% of goals against. Now this is skewed because Fox missed 27 games, but it still drives the point home.
Adam Fox is an exceptional defenseman who quietly had a very strong season. The hate is wildly overblown and a media talking point that has never been rooted in fact.
Adam Fox 2025-2026 report card grade: A, would be A+ if he could stay healthy for a full 82 games
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