UPDATED: Lee Stempniak Signing Clearly Signals Rangers Are Going For It!

If you can't beat em! Join em! Stempniak signs with the NYR (Gene J. Puskar / AP)

If you can’t beat em! Join em! Stempniak signs with the NYR (Gene J. Puskar / AP)

Updated 7/19/14: Lee Stempniak’s contract is for the bargain basement price of $900,000 as per NY POST. This will not hinder the signings of the 4 outstanding RFA’s.

Original Story:

The NY Rangers are on the verge of announcing a 1 year deal with veteran forward Lee Stempniak per TSN’s Darren Dreger. However, Brad May is now confirming the signing with full terms undisclosed.

This is a clear message that the Rangers have no intent to rely on young players to fill out their bottom six forwards. At 31 years of age, 5’11” and 195 pounds, Stempniak will most likely man the RW on the third line.

Stempniak will be joining his 6th team in 9 years. He has scored 25 plus goals in 2 of those seasons with a 28 goal campaign in 2009-10. He has scored 10 plus goals in each year, except for the lockout shortened season in 2012-13, where he tallied 9.

Last season, Stempniak made 2.75 million. This deal is expected to come in considerably less. Here is a quick snap shot of the possible opening day roster for the NY Rangers.

Screen Shot 2014-07-18 at 11.39.02 PM

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Anthony Scultore has been covering the New York Rangers and the NHL since 2014. His work also appears at YardBarker, and MSN. Features have been linked on Sportsnet, NBC, TFP, NY POST, NEWSDAY and more.