Noah Laba can take leap forward in development by easing Rangers workload in critical area

The barometer for progress in Noah Laba’s second season will be twofold. The Rangers forward entered wanting to add more offense to his game, wanting to improve upon his nine-goal, 24-point rookie campaign that displayed plenty of potential.But head coach Mike Sullivan also said that Laba, and by extension his third line, can ease the workloads of Mika Zibanejad and J.T.

Miller — whose ice time in 2025-26 jumped from the previous year — by earning trust to take defensive zone faceoffs too.  Join Post Sports+ for exciting subscriber-only features, including real-time texting with Mollie Walker about the inside buzz on the Rangers.Laba’s 50.8 percent success rate at the dot was the worst among the Blueshirts’ regular centers and ranked 78th in the NHL among skaters who took 300 faceoffs.

But Sullivan described Laba as someone who’s “pretty good at the faceoff circle” and “has a better understanding of how we’re trying to play.” He’ll occupy a critical role as their third-line center, and, with Vincent Trocheck gone, sits one injury away from top-six responsibility.He also now will be directly responsible for helping spell Zibanejad and Miller in certain defensive situations. “Last year, we leaned on J.T.

and Mika a lot in those situations,” Sullivan said Wednesday.“[Laba] was a young guy, trying to find his way in the league, and I didn’t want to put him in difficult spots.

I think now he’s got a year under his belt.… So our hope is that maybe we can take J.T.

and Mika out of some of those situations and deploy them in a more advantageous situation offensively to try to take advantage of their strength as a group.” Zibanejad averaged 20:54 of ice time, his highest since the 2019-20 campaign, and led the Rangers with 412 defensive zone faceoffs.Miller averaged 20:09 last season, marking a noticeable increase from 18:31 during his 31-game stint with the Blueshirts in 2024-25, and took 294 faceoffs in the Rangers end...