The New York Rangers have reached an agreement with restricted free agent forward Ryan Strome ahead of his arbitration hearing, signing him to a two-year contract worth a total of $9MM according to Larry Brooks of the New York Post. Strome’s hearing had been scheduled for later today, with his camp filing for $5.7MM and the Rangers filing for $3.6MM. This deal’s AAV comes down in the middle of those two numbers, but also importantly buys out an extra year of unrestricted free agency.
Strome, 27, could only have received a one-year contract from the arbitration process as he was scheduled to become an unrestricted free agent after this season. The fifth-overall pick from 2011, he has already played in 491 NHL games in his career. Those haven’t all been successful outings, but Strome did seem to find his footing again after landing in New York in 2018. With 59 points in 70 games last season he was the team’s best offensive weapon behind the super-pair of Artemi Panarin and Mika Zibanejad, though that isn’t expected to continue. The Rangers have a number of blue-chip prospects ready to make an impact including 2020 first-overall pick Alexis Lafreniere.
What Strome does still represent is a solid middle-six center for a team that suddenly looks like they will compete for a playoff spot. Their offense is young, skilled, and deep, while the crease is safe in the hands of two young netminders. Tony DeAngelo was re-signed to a two-year deal, and Adam Fox looks like a future star.
Even if they decide that Strome isn’t the player they want to sign a long-term UFA deal with, the Rangers will have two cracks at it with him on this new deal, one that certainly doesn’t impede their ability to add even more. Only Brendan Lemieux remains unsigned and the team has more than $6.3MM in cap space.
Interesting to see Strome get two years.
It may not happen next year, though I believe they’ll be a playoff contender, but this team will be a serious player for years to come. There’s some solid talent on this team – now if they can just make it gel…
This is the deal I wanted, 2 years 4.5m per, and hopefully Strome plays with a chip on his shoulder and if we aren’t a lock for a strong playoff run we have a great asset to trade.
Way overpaid. They’ll be looking to dump him at some point.
It’s 9m over 2 years. They’ll “dump him” when his contract is up.
Agreed. However there is no clause regarding movement. So if he does not play well this year, we could trade him, maybe even expose him in the Seattle Expansion Draft next summer.
Unless it looks like we are making a deep playoff run I see Strome being traded or exposed in the expansion draft. If this deal has a NMC or NTC I would feel differently about it. Strome is very movable once the season gets going.
There is no NMC or NTC as per Capfriendly.
Right, if it had an NTC or NMC I would be concerned, he came in at a slightly high, but reasonable price and is very tradeable to a contender if we are not one.