Frugal Rangers is a real change of pace this free agent season, a look at their signings so far
The Rangers have been frugal this offseason. Yes, the Broadway Blueshirts have avoided signing anyone on the free agent market of any consequence. The biggest deal, and much to the fanbase’s chagrin is Jack Johnson to a one year deal at $1.15 million.
Rangers free agent signings so far
Jeff Gorton has given out 10 contracts totaling up to $7.9M for next season. That is an average salary of just $795K for each player. Nine of those deals were to free agents, and one was Alexis Lafreniere’s entry level contract for three years.
Seven of the 10 deals are two-way contracts meaning the money will be less if they play in Hartford. All but one (Jack Johnson) can be fully buried in the minors with no cap hit.
| PLAYER | AGE | POS | TYPE | TERM | VALUE | CAP HIT |
| Phillip Di Giuseppe | 27 | LW | 2way | 1 | $700,000 | $700,000 |
| Jack Johnson | 33 | LD | 1way | 1 | $1,150,000 | $1,150,000 |
| Brandon Crawley | 23 | D | 2way | 1 | $700,000 | $700,000 |
| Jonny Brodzinski | 27 | C | 2way | 1 | $700,000 | $700,000 |
| Colin Blackwell | 27 | C | 2way | 2 | $1,450,000 | $725,000 |
| Kevin Rooney | 27 | C | 1way | 2 | $1,500,000 | $750,000 |
| Keith Kinkaid | 31 | G | 1way | 2 | $1,650,000 | $825,000 |
| Anthony Greco | 27 | RW | 2way | 2 | $1,475,000 | $737,500 |
| Anthony Bitetto | 30 | LD | 2way | 2 | $1,475,000 | $737,500 |
| Alexis Lafrenière | 19 | LW | 2way | 3 | $11,325,000 | $925,000 |
Will the Rangers make a move?
At this time the Rangers have 13 contract spots available. The focus for the team will be securing deals for Tony DeAngelo, Ryan Strome, Brendan Lemieux, and Alexandar Georgiev. That means the Rangers will still have room to add 9 more contracts.
Many of those will be filled by moving up guys currently listed a non-roster such as Libor Hajek, Vitali Kravtsov, and K’Andre Miller. Of course the Rangers must factor in performance bonus cushions which at the moment stands at $4 million before adding a player like Kravtsov to it.
So the approach will be to let the dust settle on the RFAs. Once they know what cap space they have left if any, they could go bargain hunting. What if a player like Erik Haula is still waiting for a home next month? You never know what surprises await in the crazy offseason.
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