Braden Schneider has been in the news a lot lately. From trade rumors to his one year contract extension, the end of July has been all about Braden Schneider. The newest member of the polarizing defensemen club, Schneider’s 2025-2026 season didn’t do much to force the Rangers to keep him and didn’t do much to endear him to the fans. The question about Schneider isn’t necessarily about where he plays or who his partner is, but whether he fits in the long term strategy. After last season and the moves made in the past few weeks, it looks like Braden Schneider may be on the outside looking in.
The soon to be 25 year old right handed defenseman continued with his 20 point pace, putting up 2 goals and 16 assists–a career high–in 82 games last season. Funny enough, he’s added one assist to his total each season starting with 13 assists in 2022-2023 and ending with 16 assists this past season. Essentially each season has been a new career high in assists by exactly 1 assist. Something funny to note.
Offense isn’t Braden Schneider’s game though. He was drafted with such fanfare to be a Jacob Trouba-lite, laying hits and playing strong defense. Unfortunately it seems only half of that came to fruition, much like Trouba himself. Schneider led all Rangers defensemen in hits with 163, good for third on the team behind Will Cuylle (302) and Vincent Trocheck (193). For those doing the math, 163 hits is about 2 hits per game. Not exactly the big hitter, and far less than the 200+ hits Trouba was putting up with the Rangers.
Braden Schneider’s metrics are a bit of a train wreck too. While we weren’t necessarily expecting great offensive possession numbers, seeing giant red bars indicate the puck is a grenade on his stick. His xGF/60 and CF/60 numbers confirm this. On defense, where we should see Schneider put up better numbers, he’s well below replacement level in limting quality and quantity against.
Taking this a step further with his microstats, it’s clear Braden Schneider struggles at defending zone entries, retrieving dump ins, and moving the puck up the ice. Unfortunately those deficiencies impact his overall effectiveness, as today’s game requires an ability to transition play out of the zone. That said, Schneider is surprisingly decent at gaining the offensive zone with control. It’s not all bad, but it’s clear Braden Schneider has more name brand value than actual value.
Ideally the Rangers move on from Schneider in short order before his name brand value plummets to meet his actual on-ice value. Even if the other options are a sideways move, they are significantly cheaper. Schneider is not a good bang for your buck defenseman. Kind of hard to be that when he’s not even a good defenseman. But who knows, maybe the issue is the Rangers being hot garbage the last two seasons. Guess we will find out next season.
