New York Rangers Sign Gustav Rydahl

June 13: The team has officially agreed to terms with Rydahl on a one-year contract for 2022-23. However, financial terms were not confirmed.

May 16: Despite clinching their place in the second round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs last night with a series-clinching overtime goal from Artemi Panarin, the New York Rangers have already begun their offseason work, adding to their forward group for next season. According to CapFriendly, the organization has signed forward Gustav Rydahl to a one-year, one-way contract for the 2022-23 season (link). The contract is worth $750K and will leave Rydahl a UFA after next season.

Unlike many signings this time of year, Rydahl is not a young prospect in the Rangers system; instead, he is a veteran of parts of nine SHL seasons, spending the previous four seasons with Farjestads. Rydahl, who will be 28 at the start of next season, has proven to be a reliable center for his SHL teams, though never being much of a point-producer until 2018-19 when he began to breakout. After accumulating just 20 points over 191 SHL games from 2013-14 through 2017-18, Rydahl had 12 goals and seven assists in 47 games in 2018-19. He would take another step forward in 2019-20, scoring 19 goals to go along with 16 assists in 49 games. The veteran would play in just nine games in 2020-21, tallying two assists, but rebounded strongly this past season, where he had 15 goals and 15 assists in 44 games.

In Rydahl, the Rangers will look for a responsible two-way center who can contribute on offense from time to time. Notably, the Rangers do have some salary-cap considerations this offseason, with Adam Fox and Mika Zibanejad both due significant raises and forwards Ryan Strome Andrew Copp, and Frank Vatrano as important pending UFAs. The team has also failed to get consistent, strong production out of bottom-six center Filip Chytil, and while Chytil has not been bad either, they could look to move on from him and his $2.3MM cap hit for next season, replacing it with Rydahl’s $750K hit.