The New York Rangers are going to avoid arbitration with new defenseman Jacob Trouba, instead agreeing to terms on a new contract. The deal is for seven years and carries an average annual value of $8MM. Trouba was scheduled for an arbitration hearing on July 25, but will no longer require it. CapFriendly provides the full breakdown:
- 2019-20: $4.0MM salary + $8.0MM signing bonus
- 2020-21: $2.0MM salary + $8.0MM signing bonus + NMC
- 2021-22: $2.0MM salary + $6.0MM signing bonus + NMC
- 2022-23: $6.0MM salary + NMC
- 2023-24: $8.0MM salary + NMC
- 2024-25: $6.0MM salary + 15-team NTC
- 2025-26: $6.0MM salary + 12-team NTC
This contract is exactly the reason why the Winnipeg Jets decided to move on and trade the 25-year old Trouba this summer, as they wouldn’t have been able to afford a deal of this magnitude even if he had wanted to sign long-term there. The Jets have Kyle Connor and Patrik Laine to sign this offseason and already have huge commitments laid out for several others. The Rangers meanwhile had nearly zero long-term commitments when they acquired Trouba for Neal Pionk and a first-round pick, though they subsequently gave Artemi Panarin $81.5MM in free agency.
Signing Trouba is another signal that the Rangers are finished their tear down and are starting to turn the corner towards a competitive team once again. After spending a little over a year selling every asset they could to acquire draft picks and prospects, the Rangers have now added a top-pairing defenseman, superstar winger and second-overall pick in one offseason, not to mention nabbing top college prospect Adam Fox from the Carolina Hurricanes. Though the team is still projected to be very young this year with names like Filip Chytil, Kaapo Kakko, Lias Andersson and Brett Howden fighting for playing time, the additions of Trouba and Panarin are not ones made by a rebuilding club.
The new contract for Trouba will buy out six years of unrestricted free agency, as an arbitration decision of one year would have taken him to the open market. Despite being only 25 he has already played six full seasons in the NHL, totaling 408 regular season games. After taking on a bigger powerplay role last season with the Jets, Trouba set a career-high in points with 50 while still averaging nearly 23 minutes a night. He will immediately become their top right-handed option, forming quite the formidable pairing with Brady Skjei if the team decides to go that route.
At $8MM however, a huge responsibility will be placed on Trouba’s shoulders. The deal makes him the fifth-highest paid defenseman (in terms of cap hit) in the league, tied with John Carlson and Brent Burns. Both of those players have reached the 70-point mark, with Burns being a previous Norris Trophy winner as the league’s best defenseman (three-time finalist). He’ll have more than enough opportunity to get to that level in New York, but it’s still a gamble for the Rangers to make at this point.
In fact, this deal (when combined with Panarin’s) puts the Rangers into a tight salary situation of their own. The team still has Brendan Lemieux and Anthony DeAngelo to sign and an arbitration hearing scheduled for later this month with Pavel Buchnevich. In order to afford new contracts for all three the Rangers will have to make an additional roster move, whether that is trading a player like Vladislav Namestnikov or buying out someone like Kevin Shattenkirk. The team will get another buyout window a few days after the Buchnevich arbitration is settled, which will give them some more flexibility. There is also the possibility of trading veteran forward Chris Kreider who sits as the third-highest paid forward on the team and is scheduled to be an unrestricted free agent next summer.
Either way, this contract for Trouba comes with real consequences for the Rangers. The 25-year old defenseman is an excellent player, but he now has even more pressure to perform than ever.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images
That’s a looooot of money for Trouba. Free agents and RFA’s next year are gonna be liicking their chops after this
I see the heat-wave engulfing North America is frying more than a few GM brains today. Must be nice to have one season where you score more than 35 points and immediately the Rangers back the truck up. They have a history with these sorts of badly overpaid deals.
Welcome JT!
Good player but 8 AAV is a lot. Winnipeg did well getting a 1st for a player they could never sign. Cancels out the Hayes disaster
Meh I would rather Trouba at 8 million per rather than the top guys getting 11 million plus. He might not even be done developing which is an added bonus for NYR.
This is why there’s no cap space left in the league
Gotta trade Buchnevich Kreider namestikov free up more salary
Hope they don’t trade Kreider.Buyout either Smith or Shattenkirk.Maybe both.
This is from 2 days ago:
MacJablonski–NotVegasLegend2 days ago
Be absolutely *SHOCKED* if Trouba DOESN’T go through with this crap again. Just like Justin Williams is “Mr. Game 7”, Trouba’s is “Mr. Arbitration”… One thing’s for sure: MORE Cap Hell to come!
No word from @Macjablonski–NotVegasLegend on this signing on this board……Someone should do a wellness check. Hoped that the *SHOCKED* was not to much :)
^ I love this
holy mother of overpay
Jets get Hayes and Pionk for Trouba and lemieux, first rounder a wash.
Advantage rangers big time
Maybe the heat DID get to Trouba! He’s still Mr. Arbitration, but without the baggage of Lose-A-Peg now. He surprised me a bit. Yeah, I said it. (Did you ignore his track record?) Did the Rangers not want to chance a potential screw-job arb hearing and basically bid against themselves? And, maybe they think that the Trouba overpay will be somewhat negated if they can, indeed, buyout Smith & Shattenkirk? I’ll still stick with MORE CAP HELL to come, though! The teams not worrying about how to make everybody fit are the bottom-feeders, where undesirable contracts are destined in the next couple of months. If Trouba can’t make it work in NYR, though, it’ll be yet another bad contract to eat for RangersTown…hope for his and the Rangers’ sake it doesn’t work out that way. Might be nice to see him stay put for a while and show us what he can do.
With additions of Trouba and Panarin, it wouldn’t make sense to trade away a top 6 forward like Kreider. Not if you truly have turned corner and expect to start contending. The “cap he’ll” comments don’t make any sense as every teams better players are going to get paid. Rangers have a bunch of contracts expiring over next 2 years for guys that probably aren’t in future. Buying out Smith is a huge probability, not so much Shattenkirk. I’m sure it will only take 1 or 2 guys getting traded to get cap compliant this year. Moving forward guys that are still on roster this year that probably won’t be next with their cap hits: This year: Namestikov 4M, Strome 3.1m, Beleskey 1.9m, Fast 1.85m, Next year: Lundqvist 8.5m, Staal 5.7m, Shattenkirk 6.6m, Smith 4.3m…Figure anyone of these guys could be traded before season, as I mentioned 1 might be bought out. As you can see they’re in a small bind temporarily, but won’t be at all after this season. With the rebuild of farm, expect guys leaving to be replaced by the kids on elc’s
Cap Hell means one or more players are being overpaid, and mostly for no good reason. It doesn’t apply to the actual top performing players, but to others on the roster. In the case of Trader Pete, many players were overpaid a little bit here & a little bit there, which caused Cap Hell for Edmonton. When you run out of cap space because of iffy or downright bad contracts, the organization gets hamstrung and can’t do as much (if anything) to compete. It boils down to money not well spent.