Mika Zibanejad just answered every question about his decline with a 78-point season.
A year ago, he walked into training camp as one of the biggest question marks on the Rangers roster. Now the question has completely flipped.
Zibanejad put up 34 goals and 78 points in 81 games last season, leading New York in both categories.
That's a jump from 62 points the year before, a 25.8 percent increase in his total production in a single season.
His shooting percentage climbed from 10.9 percent to 15.8 percent, and his average ice time crossed 20 minutes a night for the first time since 2020-21.
He also crossed 1,000 career NHL games and turned 33, hardly the profile teams expect a bounce-back season from.
Teammates voted him their Players' Player, and the New York media named him team MVP. He also won the fan-voted Steven McDonald Extra Effort Award.
Why this bounce-back looks real, not lucky
The power play clearly helped. Sixteen power-play goals will do that for any forward's season total.
But his 5-on-5 numbers improved too, going from 11 goals and 31 points at even strength to 16 goals and 37 points.
New York controlled 50.5 percent of expected goals with him on the ice last season, up from 48.7 percent the year before.
His high-danger chance share jumped from 48.9 percent to 53.7 percent, real evidence this wasn't just a hot shooting stretch.
He also didn't rely on one magic line combination. His three most-used trios combined for a 29-28 scoring edge with solid underlying numbers across the board.
That matters because his linemates are almost certainly changing again this season, and a one-line dependent bounce-back wouldn't have survived that shuffle.
New York finished last season 34-39-9, 29th overall in the league, proof Zibanejad's individual surge didn't translate to team results yet.
He still has four years left on his $8.5 million contract, a number that looks a lot more comfortable after this season than it did before it.
Can he actually repeat this at 33 years old, or was last season simply the best version of a player on his way down finding one more peak?
Either way, the Rangers enter camp with a completely different Zibanejad question than the one they walked in with a year ago.
Can Mika Zibanejad repeat his bounce-back season at 33 years old?
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