Will Borgen has given the Rangers the defensive breakout they banked on

Will Borgen is set to be part of the team for the near future, and his defensive prowess is the main reason why.

By Peter Baugh

Nov. 12, 2025 7:00 am EST

TARRYTOWN, N.Y. — On the surface, Will Borgen’s numbers don’t stand out. If anything, they’re pedestrian. He has only two points, both assists, in 17 games.

Fortunately for the Rangers, Borgen’s impact goes beyond goals and assists. New York counts on him for his defensive performance, and so far this season, he’s been excellent on that side of the puck.

“I don’t care about points,” said the defenseman, who is averaging a career high 18:39 of ice time a game. “I care about wins and playing good. That’s about it.”

“We’re not asking him to score a lot of goals,” coach Mike Sullivan added.

General manager Chris Drury made a big bet on Borgen when he acquired him from Seattle in December 2024 as part of a package for 2019 No. 2 overall pick Kaapo Kakko, who failed to develop into more than a middle-six forward with the Rangers. Drury extended Borgen less than two months after the trade, committing five years to him at a $4.1 million average annual value. The 28-year-old is set to be part of the team for the near future, and his defensive prowess is the main reason why.

Borgen, a right shot with a 6-foot-3 frame, is rewarding the organization’s trust to start the season. According to colleague Dom Luszczyszyn’s Net Rating model, Borgen has a plus-4.2 defensive rating, which is best in the league, just ahead of Vegas Golden Knights defensemen Shea Theodore (3.9) and Brayden McNabb (3.8). Borgen has been a key cog in a stingy Rangers’ group of defensemen: Vladislav Gavrikov (3.8) and Adam Fox (3.3) are also in the top-six league-wide in defensive rating.

“What we’re asking of Will is to be hard to play against and defend hard, help us on the penalty kill, defend the rushes aggressively, kill plays in the D-zone, be hard at the net front,” Sullivan said. “That’s the game that we think he excels at. That’s what he’s brought to us.”

Borgen has been one of the major breakouts on a team that has had a major turnaround defensively. In 2024-25, New York ranked 27th league-wide in five-on-five expected goals against, according to Natural Stat Trick. This year, they lead the league in five-on-five expected goals against per 60 minutes (2.06).

“I like when we’re all working together,” Borgen said. “It’s pretty hard for other teams to score on us. I think that showed for a lot of the year.”

Borgen’s career took off with the Kraken, who selected him from Buffalo in the 2021 expansion draft. He emerged as an NHL regular in 2022-23, helping the Kraken to the second round of the playoffs while putting up a positive defensive rating over 82 regular-season games. His underlying numbers dipped the next season, though, then plummeted while he was in Seattle in the first half of 2024-25. His ice time decreased to 15:12 a game, and he said after the trade to New York that “it just wasn’t working out” in Seattle. The Rangers’ professional scouts appear to have done a good job identifying a player who would perform better on a new team, because that’s exactly what Borgen has done in New York.

Former Rangers’ coach Peter Laviolette immediately trusted Borgen in a top-four role, playing him for more than 18 minutes a game. He had the hardest quality of offensive competition of any Rangers’ defenseman, according to Hockey Stat Cards. The Rangers outscored opponents with him on the ice after the trade, and he’s been even better this year. Under Sullivan, he looks like a legitimate, shutdown top-four defenseman. His familiarity with his new team also has likely helped; he said he’s feeling “more comfortable everywhere on and off the ice” now that he’s almost a year into his New York tenure.

Borgen’s heat map for the season shows that the Rangers have done a good job limiting chances directly around the net in his minutes. On his side of the ice, the right, most of the shot volume comes from higher in the zone, a less dangerous area.

Sullivan did not know much about Borgen before taking the Rangers’ head coaching job in May, but he spent time in the offseason watching his film and familiarizing himself with his game. The coach immediately liked Borgen’s willingness to defend and the details in his game, and he spoke highly Tuesday about how he uses his size to his advantage.

“Number one, he’s competitive, and he has a level of abrasiveness to his game that I think makes us a whole lot more difficult to play against,” Sullivan said.

During his time in Pittsburgh, Sullivan helped get the best out of defensemen such as Kris Letang, Brian Dumoulin and Olli Määttä during the Penguins’ two Stanley Cup seasons, as well as John Marino in the years after. Borgen has liked playing under the new coach’s system, which uses a zone approach to defending rather than man-on-man.

The Rangers have primarily played Borgen with Carson Soucy, his former Kraken teammate. They have been on the ice for 124:58 together at five-on-five, and New York leads in goals (3-1) and expected goal share (52.83 percent) in those minutes.

“Borgs is an easy guy to play with,” Soucy said. “He plays a very predictable, smart, hard, simple game to get along with, so it’s been good.”

“He’s a reliable, trustworthy defenseman, and he’s predictable for his partner,” Sullivan added. “I think those are great attributes to have for a defenseman.”