Big Braden Schneider question after Rangers 1-year deal: ‘Where does he fit?’
Braden Schneider signed his one-year, $5.5 million contract with the New York Rangers earlier this week. But that doesn’t mean the 24-year-old defenseman’s long-term future on Broadway is exactly secure.
The one-year agreement takes Schneider back to RFA status next summer, and he’ll again have arbitration rights. He can become an unrestricted free agent in 2028.
So, in a way, it feels like the Rangers kicked the bigger long-term decision on Schneider down the road, perhaps needing to see more from the him in 2026-27.
“To me Braden Schneider is the guy I have a real soft spot for. I think he’s a helluva player, he’s a helluva kid, he’s got all kinds of leadership qualities,” former Rangers captain and longtime MSG Networks analysts Dave Maloney told Forever Blueshirts on the Rink Rap podcast. “Where does he fit? That’s the only real question I have.”
The simple answer in the short term is that Schneider fits on the third defense pairing. That’s the spot he’s largely been locked into since his NHL debut in January of 2022. Last season, his role expanded with mixed results, taking on a larger responsibility on the penalty kill and filling in on the top pair alongside Vladislav Gavrikov when Adam Fox missed 27 games with two extended injury absences.
Schneider had 18 points (two goals, 16 assists) last season, and his 43.26 percent expected goal share 5v5 was worst among Rangers regulars, per Natural Stat Trick. Two seasons ago, he established career highs with six goals and 21 points, despite playing with a torn labrum that required surgery last summer.
He led the Rangers with 140 blocked shots in 2025-26, topped Blueshirts defensemen with 163 hits, averaged more than 20 minutes TOI for the first time in his career, and played all 82 games — he’s only missed five games since his NHL debut in January 2022.
However, any thought of him moving up into a full-time second-pairing role next season went out the window when the Rangers acquired Sean Durzi from the Utah Mammoth as part of the return for Vincent Trocheck on July 1. Durzi turns 28 in October, is a right-shot d-man like Schneider, has two years at $6 million annually remaining on his contract, and is a better puck mover and distributor on the back end than Schneider.
So, Durzi slots in next to fellow newcomer Marcus Pettersson on the second pair, and Schneider pairs with one of Matthew Robertson, Alberts Smits, Urho Vaakanainen, or Drew Fortescue.
“The guy I get a little concerned about, where he fits, is Braden Schneider. And I am a huge Braden Schneider supporter,” Maloney explained. “And I think he represents sometimes what’s gone on in the Rangers franchise, you slot in the next gunslinger and then your homegrown guy doesn’t get the chance he should get over time to grow.”
Dave Maloney believes Braden Schneider ‘very valuable player to Rangers’
Entering his sixth NHL season, Schneider still hasn’t completely won the Rangers over, nor earned that unfailing trust from coaches nor management, even with his first-round (No. 19 overall in 2020) pedigree. There’s a reason why his name populates trade rumors, and the Rangers signed him for one year and not long term. At least not yet.
Then again, maybe Schneider feels slighted by the Rangers, believes he deserves a bigger role on the back end. Maybe he resents the Durzi acquisition. What then? Remember, he can leave of his own accord in two years.
The Rangers can decide in the coming year whether to extend Schneider long term or trade him. That’s the spot this one-year contract agreement leaves them in. Scott Morrow’s still here as a young right-shot option on defense. EJ Emery, the 2024 first-round pick (No. 30 overall), likely turns pro this spring after his junior year at North Dakota.
Each is a more affordable option than Schneider. But is either the better option on the ice?
“If Braden Schneider were traded, to me that would be another situation where a young player homegrown, home-drafted, did he really get the chance [with the Rangers]?,” Maloney questioned.
It’s a fair thing to ask. And circles back to where does Schneider fit with the Rangers long term?
“He’s a very valuable player to the Rangers. It’s up to Mike Sullivan and his staff to make it work,” Maloney said. “He’s going to get his penalty kill time. But is he going to get the 20-plus minutes he was getting playing up in the top four, in the bottom rotation which looks like how it’s setting up? Everybody’s going to play. It’s not like in my day when the top four played and the bottom two didn’t. It’s not that way any more.
“So, it’ll be interesting to watch.”
