The Rangers have retained pending restricted free agent forward Juuso Pärssinen on a two-year deal for the 2025-26 and 2026-27 campaigns, per a team announcement. It’s worth a total of $2.5MM with a cap hit of $1.25MM, Peter Baugh of The Athletic reports.
Pärssinen, 24, arrived in New York in March when the Blueshirts acquired him from the Avalanche in the Ryan Lindgren trade. It was the young Finn’s second move of the season. He kicked off his third NHL campaign as a member of the Predators, who selected him in the seventh round in 2019, but was sent to Colorado in a minor trade in December after struggling to stay in the lineup.
On the year, the 6’3″, 212-lb pivot posted 6-10–16 with a minus-five rating in 48 appearances across the three clubs. From a points-per-game perspective, that’s a minor improvement on his 2023-24 sophomore slump, in which he was limited to 12 points in 44 games with Nashville. He got his offense going again despite averaging 10:32 per game after averaging north of 14 minutes per night across his first two NHL campaigns.
The fact that he’s no longer waiver-exempt has likely helped his case for staying on NHL rosters, but he had a strong finish to the campaign that likely helped his case for an opening-night job in 2025-26. Considering the Rangers gave him $100K more than the maximum buriable cap hit in the minors, that’s something they’re anticipating. After the move, Pärssinen averaged fewer than 10 minutes per game for New York but scored five points in his final three games of the campaign, adding a plus-one rating with 14 blocks and 17 hits.
Pärssinen does have legitimate offensive upside. In his first NHL showing in 2022-23, he posted a 6-19–25 scoring line in 45 games for the Preds after an early-season call-up from AHL Milwaukee. That’s an 11-goal, 46-point pace over an 82-game campaign. It’s certainly unreasonable to expect him to replicate those numbers if new head coach Mike Sullivan continues deploying him in a fourth-line role, but he can be a useful play-driver deep in the lineup.
By signing now, Pärssinen avoids a bout with RFA status for the second time in as many years. He spent almost the entire offseason unsigned by Nashville in 2024 before coming to terms on a league-minimum deal the week before training camp opened. His deal includes a $1.05MM base salary and a $150K signing bonus in 2025-26 and a base salary of $1.3MM with no bonuses in 2026-27, per PuckPedia. He’ll be one year away from UFA status when his deal expires, and the Rangers will need to tender a $1.3MM qualifying offer to retain his signing rights upon expiry.
The Rangers now have just $8.42MM in cap space for next season with a roster size of 19, per PuckPedia. Without any cap-clearing moves, that will be eaten up quickly by new deals for pending RFAs William Cuylle and K’Andre Miller.
Image courtesy of Brad Penner-Imagn Images.