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Mika Zibanejad didn’t have to actually say it; anyone who was around him during the 2024-25 season already knows.

There was a heaviness to Zibanejad’s presence from the beginning of the year.

It only seemed to pile on more weight as each game went by without a sign of the defensively gifted and offensively dynamic No. 1 center the Rangers had come to know since he came to the organization in July 2016.

“I feel like mentally, what I went through the first few months was probably the toughest I’ve ever been through in my career,” Zibanejad said during the Rangers’ breakup day earlier this week.