Zibanejad’s Quiet Power Season

**Corey** (0:00)
It's June 5th, New York Rangers News Today starts now, AI powered and game ready. I'm Corey with the story. Yo, so the Lady Byng Trophy, that's the one for the player with the best sportsmanship and skill combined. This year, Cole Caufield from the Montreal Canadiens took it home.
He had a monster season, career highs and goals and points, and kept his penalty minutes super low, just 14 and 81 games. Now, Mika Zibanejad of the New York Rangers, he actually got some votes for that award too.
He finished 12th in the balloting, which is pretty solid considering the competition. He had one first place vote and another for second, showing some people really respected his game this past season. Zibanejad had a serious bounce back year after a bit of a slump. He put up 96 points, leading the Rangers in goals and power play tallies. And get this, he also had just 14 penalty minutes, same as Caufield. That's some clean hockey right there.
Even though he didn't snag the Lady Byng, Zibanejad definitely got recognized by his own team. He snagged the Steven McDonald Extra Effort Award for the third time, was voted team MVP, and even got the Players Player Award. Plus, he climbed the Rangers all time scoring charts, passing Adam Graves for fourth in goals and becoming the franchise leader in power play goals. He also hit some major career milestones, racking up 800 points and playing in 1000 games. So yeah, while Caufield got the hardware for sportsmanship and skill, Zibanejad had a season that earned him plenty of respect, both from the league, voters and especially from his teammates and the Rangers organization. It was a big year for him no doubt.