By trading 25-year-old Filip Chytil to acquire J.T. Miller, the New York Rangers committed to an older group of centermen. Miller, Mika Zibanejad, Vincent Trocheck and Jonny Brodzinski are all 31. Sam Carrick is 33, and New York’s best forward prospects are wings. Organizationally, young center depth was minimal at best.
GM Chris Drury rectified that at least a little bit Saturday by acquiring Juuso Pärssinen from Colorado in a package for Ryan Lindgren, Jimmy Vesey and the rights to prospect Hank Kempf. New York also got Calvin de Haan, a second-round pick and a fourth-round pick in the deal.
The 24-year-old Pärssinen, set to make his Rangers debut Sunday, has 48 points in 126 career games, mostly with Nashville.
“He has a ton of upside,” Nashville Predators defenseman Luke Schenn said ahead of facing his former teammate. “Big body, he can skate, can control the puck down low. Those guys are hard to find: the blend of size and skill.”
“He’s good at protecting pucks down low,” said Predators center Michael McCarron, who played with Pärssinen both in the NHL and with AHL Milwaukee. “I’d say he’s a playoff-style player. He’s got some high-end skill when it presents itself. With his big body, he protects the puck really well, he takes the puck to the net pretty (well).”
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Pärssinen, a pending restricted free agent with arbitration rights, has yet to consistently put together that upside. Predators coach Andrew Brunette sliced his ice time from 14:36 a game in 2023-24 to 12:13. Nashville traded him to Colorado in December, and the Avalanche played him even less. He played 9:47 a game there and was a healthy scratch the two games before the trade.
“We were on him about skating,” Brunette said. “When he moves, he’s a very effective player, he can get on the forecheck and use his body, he can spin off down low. When he’s not moving, the game’s hard for him. That’s kind of where our focus was with him.”
“His challenge is his pace,” one NHL scout said. “He struggles to push pace through the middle of the ice with the puck on his tape.”
The scout, though, praised his hands and vision and said he “brings the Finnish work ethic and compete.” Schenn called him a pro — he cares, is always in the gym and puts in work before and after practice.
“That’s why I think he’s going to end up figuring it out,” the defenseman said. “If you keep chipping away at it, eventually it’s going to come.”
That would be good news for New York. If he performs well the rest of the season, the Rangers could perhaps go into 2025-26 with him as their third-line center. That would potentially give them flexibility to keep Zibanejad at top-line right wing, where he’s had recent success playing with Miller.
Pärssinen has four goals and 11 points in 37 games this season, his first as a full-time NHLer. His potential and 6-foot-3 size intrigued the Rangers, who had discussions about acquiring him dating back to his time with Nashville, according to a league source.
“I think he’s still got a lot of talent,” star Predators forward Filip Forsberg said. “I’m excited about the new opportunity for him.”
Pärssinen has played both wing and center throughout his NHL career, but Rangers coach Peter Laviolette told reporters Sunday that he wants to play center. He’ll get a chance to do that with New York, where he’ll likely start on the third line.
“Great opportunity for him to come in and show what he can do,” Laviolette said. “He’s young, he’s big, he’s strong. That’s a good pickup for us.”
“At the end of the day, that’s what everyone wants as a player: a little consistency and a role and a leash as far as getting (the) opportunity to be allowed to grow as a player,” Schenn said. “If you make a mistake and mess up, it’s not going to set you back.”
One NHL front-office member praised Pärssinen’s size, compete and board play but said his offensive instincts are limiting. Brunette said sometimes he played a little too safe. He’s reliable, according to his former coach, and is trying to find the right balance between that and playing with too much caution.
“He’s a very reliable two-way player and doesn’t cheat the game,” Brunette said. “He can get to the net, use his shot. There are a lot of attributes you really like about (Pärssinen). Obviously the fit at times didn’t always work, but you see a big kid who uses his body and skates and is hard to take pucks off and play against.”
Pärssinen’s Nashville teammates described him as quiet and well-liked off the ice. He was kind, McCarron said, and “guys never had a problem with him.”
“He’s a really good person,” Forsberg added.
Pärssinen, a seventh-round pick in 2019, has had the chance to play with skilled linemates at points in his career. The Avalanche, while banged up, gave him a chance as a wing on their second line. He scored a goal against the Rangers in that position, beating now-teammate Igor Shesterkin with a shot from the slot. He also got an extended run centering Forsberg as a rookie in 2022-23. He finished that year with a career-best 25 points in 45 games. He had 20 in his final 29 games of the year.
“He’s big, strong, (has) great vision,” Forsberg said. “He’s obviously great at protecting the puck, gives you time and space. That’s his biggest asset.”
His numbers dipped the next season (12 points in 44 games), and he only made the Predators playoff lineup for one of their six games against Vancouver. Nashville was hoping to grow Pärssinen as a center, Brunette said, but players like McCarron outplayed him. That led to the team using him at wing, though Brunette called him smart enough and reliable enough to play both positions.
“He had a really good start to his NHL career, and I think he’s obviously taken a little bit of a step back,” McCarron said. “He’s just finding his game. … Sometimes fresh starts can kick-start you back to where you were.”
Perhaps no one is better equipped to talk about Saturday’s deal than Nashville defenseman and former Ranger Brady Skjei. “I played with the whole trade!” Skjei joked. He and Pärssinen were teammates earlier this year, and he played with Lindgren and Vesey in New York. He also played with de Haan on the Carolina Hurricanes in 2022-23 and called the defenseman a good add for New York and someone who knows how to manage the game.
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Pärssinen, meanwhile, impressed Skjei right away in training camp. He found he protected pucks well and was a power forward with skill.
“I think he can be a really good player in this league,” Skjei said. “No question.”
(Photo: Matthew Stockman / Getty Images)
