New York Rangers report cards: Grading defensemen Will Borgen, Urho Vaakanainen
Neither Will Borgen nor Urho Vaakanainen is a star for the New York Rangers. But each defenseman has a specific role on the Rangers defense corps, a unit that certainly had its ups and downs in 2025-26.
New York was middle of the pack this season, ranking 15th in the League allowing 3.04 goals per game. That’s a team stat of course, one shared among the goalies, defensemen, and forwards. But the overall play from the Rangers defense corps was better than in 2024-25, with Vladislav Gavrikov’s addition a big reason why.
So good and steady was Gavrikov that he’s one of the few Rangers whose report card flashed an A- in our end-of-season analysis. You can see the report cards and grades for defensemen Braden Schneider here, and rookies Matthew Robertson and Scott Morrow here.
Report cards for Adam Fox and Drew Fortescue are still to come.
But let’s get right to it with Borgen and Vaakanainen.
Will Borgen: C+
Borgen missed games for the first time in four seasons in 2025-26, sitting out seven in November due to injury. But over 75 games, Borgen did what Borgen does, and that’s play a pretty steady if unspectacular role behind Fox on the right side of the Rangers defense. Largely paired with veteran Carson Soucy on a shutdown second pair until the Rangers traded Soucy to the Islanders in January, the 29-year-old was on for 45 goals for and 45 against 5v5 over 75 games this season, and had a modest expected goal share of 46.83 percent, per Natural Stat Trick. Borgen equaled his career high with five goals and totaled 15 points, but stood out more defensively with 99 blocked shots, third on the team, and 111 hits, which was second most among Rangers defensemen. After Soucy was traded, Borgen paired mainly with Robertson, though he did play his off (left) side for a handful games with Schneider his partner. He played an important role on New York’s very good penalty kill, too. But on a real playoiff contender, Borgen is probably best suited on the third defense pair, and playing a bit less than his typical 18 minutes per game.
Urho Vaakanainen: D+
After playing well over 46 games with the Rangers after he was acquired from the Anaheim Ducks in the Jacob Trouba trade in December of 2024, and rewarded with a two-year, $3.1 million contract, more was expected from Vaakanainen this season. The 27-year-old began the season in the opening-night lineup, but it didn’t take long for Vaakanainen to lose his spot to Robertson. When he did draw back in to the lineup, Vaakanainen didn’t do much to on either side of the puck to earn more playing time and opportunity. In fact, Vaakanainen’s ice time over 35 games played dropped to a career-low 13:51, nearly three minutes per game less than in 2024-25. Never a real force offensively, Vaakanainen managed six assists, and his xGF was 46.96 percent. With him on the ice, goals and scoring chances were basically even, though the Rangers did allow 11 more high-danger chances against with him out there 5v5. Plus he’s not much of a shot blocker nor is he physical. Despite being a first-round draft pick in 2017, Vaakanainen is not much more than a third-pair defender, and more likely an extra defenseman on the roster, as he was for the Rangers this season. Good on him, though, for helping Finland win gold at the 2026 World Championship.
