The New York Rangers announced three contracts today, two of which had already been reported. The one-year deals for Tim Gettinger and Adam Huska are now official; joining them is Ty Ronning who has also agreed to terms on a one-year contract. Ronning was a restricted free agent and not eligible for arbitration. Ronning’s deal is worth the league-minimum $750,000 with $75,000 in minor-league pay, per CapFriendly.
Originally a seventh-round pick in 2016, likely more to do with his name–he’s the son of long-time NHL forward Cliff Ronning–than his play, the 23-year-old forward has developed into a legitimate scoring threat in the minor leagues. Ronning had 10 goals and 18 points in 18 games for the Hartford Wolf Pack this season, continuing what has been a pattern to this point. In the 2017-18 season he scored 61 goals for the Vancouver Giants, and then for two seasons was nearly a point-per-game player in the ECHL.
None of the three should be impact players on the Rangers this year, but do offer real value to the AHL club. The undersized Ronning has always found a way to contribute offensively and he should find no trouble in that task for Hartford.
I have a feeling that at some point this kid Ronning is gonna be on the big club and be a speedy sniper. Just a hunch.
Like father, like son!
This move is an obvious response to Wilson.
I hate to say this but I honestly don’t think teams waste a pick on a guy for namesake. Perhaps in the spirit of nepotism but even then it sounds like this kid has the chops.
I doubt it in this case. It’s not like Cliff set the NHL on fire.
They certainly would use a 7th round pick on somebody like this hoping he eventually grows into it. I know it’s baseball, but Mike Piazza was a family favor really late in the draft that nobody could’ve possibly known would develop into a major leaguer yet alone in the HoF.
Piazza was drafted in the 62nd round. The expectation of a 62nd round choice making it in MLB is close to zero. That’s not really comparable to the seventh round in the NHL, who has a pretty good chance of being a fringe player at the NHL level.