Joe Veleno is a player who is well positioned to take on a big role for the New York Rangers.
Over the offseason, the Rangers signed Veleno to a one-year, $1.2 million contract.
Veleno, coming off a season with the Montreal Canadiens in which he played 61 games, was in search of an expanded role, and the Rangers presented him with that opportunity.
“I think the opportunity and having a bigger role,” Veleno said about why he decided to sign with the Rangers. “Not to say that obviously Montreal was great and the deep run and being part of a winning team. I just feel like there's a lot of potential here too. I think you look on paper and some of the depth that was talked about during the offseason obviously made it a little bit more interesting to want to come here.”
“I think there's a good opportunity here to be really competitive this year, push for a playoff spot, and that's what kind of made it a little bit more exciting.”
Despite being touted as a player with high offensive upside going into his draft year in 2018 when he was selected in the first round by the Detroit Red Wings, that side of his game has not quite translated at the NHL level.
However, Veleno expanded his two-way game during the 2025-26 campaign with the Canadiens, which helped earn him a spot on the team’s penalty kill.
Canadiens head coach Martin St. Louis built trust in Veleno because of his strong two-way play over the course of the season, ultimately helping grow his overall role with the team.
“I realized it last year, although my offensive numbers weren't where they wanted to be by any means, I think still having the coach's trust to put me in situations, I kind of knew my role,” Veleno said. “I knew that you know we were a team that lacked a lot of physicality and a lot of defensive habits.
“We had our star players that took over a lot of the games offensively, but (I) just found a niche and a way to contribute, and I kind of took on that role and embraced it. Took a lot of pride into penalty killing and doing the hard things that not a lot of guys want to do… I want to carry that on over to here and have that responsibility (on the penalty kill), and hopefully be a big part of it.”
To go along with his expanded defensive skill set, Veleno proved to be a reliable presence on the faceoff dot, setting a career-high in his faceoff percentage by raising his efficiency to 51.6%.
With the Rangers looking to put their top-six forward unit in more situations where they can thrive offensively, Mike Sullivan is hoping for the bottom-six forward unit to match up against the opposing team’s top lines if needed.
“Our hope is that we can maybe take J.T. and Mika out of those (defensive) situations and deploy them in a more advantageous situation offensively to try and take advantage of their strengths as a group,” Sullivan said.
Through the first week of training camp, Veleno has slotted in as the Rangers’ fourth-line center on a line with Tye Kartye.
By the looks of training camp practices, it appears as if Veleno is essentially a lock to earn that fourth-line center role, previously held by Sam Carrick before he was traded to the Buffalo Sabres in March.
Sullivan plans to deploy Veleno in a similar manner to the way St. Louis did in Montreal, as he envisions the 26-year-old forward playing penalty killing and a two-way role that goes above and beyond the typical fourth line center.
“He will without a doubt be a big part of the penalty kill,” Sullivan said of Veleno. “I think he’s also a guy that has shown his ability just with his defensive conscious, we can put him in defensive situations to play against other team’s top players if we need him to. I think the biggest thing that allows him to do that is his size and his skating ability. He can really skate, so I think that is a great attribute as a defensive player… I’m excited to work with Joe. I think he can play a real important role for us.”
