Here’s every NHL team’s player to watch break out this year

New York Rangers: Brady Skjei

Listen up, New Yorkers, this is the year Brady Skjei steps it up to the point that he becomes more than a punchline in a Saturday Night Live skit starring Chance the Rapper (“Let’s do that hockey!”).

At 24, Skjei (pronounced “Shay,” for those who saw only the skit) is just hitting his prime as a top-pairing D-man, and he’s going to get lots and lots of minutes on the sort-of-rebuilding Rangers to prove he deserves it. He had a very good rookie season but followed that up with a not-as-good sophomore season (alongside all the other basement-dwelling Rangers last season, apparently), lowlighted by a ghastly minus-27.

So, fresh outlook, new coach, new hope, new future! At 6-foot-3 and 211 pounds, he is fairly solid, which has afforded him well in the endurance category, pushing him to 80 and 82 games in his only two full NHL seasons, which he’ll need to maintain again as he adds those minutes.

And Skjei is bound to get even more ice time, especially on special teams, and lots of extra offensive opportunities while riding alongside run-and-gun maestro Kevin Shattenkirk, who is due a breakout season of his own on Broadway. It all adds up to points and attention galore for the 2012 first-rounder. Of the non-mocking kind, that is.