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New York Rangers Sign Alexis Lafreniere

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Sometimes it’s easy to forget that the first-overall pick doesn’t immediately join an organization when he is selected, but still needs to negotiate a contract. That wasn’t a problem in this case, as Alexis Lafreniere has inked his entry-level deal with the New York Rangers just a few days after being picked.

CapFriendly reports that the deal, like other contracts signed by first-overall picks, will be set at the entry-level max. It includes a base salary of $832.5K, $92,500 signing bonus, $850K in Schedule ’A’ performance bonuses and $2MM in Schedule ’B’ performance bonuses in all three years.

Those ’B’ bonuses are difficult to reach and include things like finishing in the top ten for NHL goals, assists, points or points-per-game, winning major awards like the Hart or Selke trophies, or making the NHL first or second All-Star teams at year’s end. The ’A’ bonuses are much easier milestones to reach and include things like scoring 20 goals, 60 points or finishing in the top six in team ice time.

Technically Lafreniere’s contract could slide forward like any other prospect, but the young forward will play this season with the Rangers and thus burn the first year of the deal. If all goes well, he will be a restricted free agent in 2023.

Rangers Re-Sign Phillip Di Giuseppe

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The Rangers have taken care of business with one of their restricted free agents as PuckPedia reports (Twitter link) that New York has re-signed winger Phillip Di Giuseppe to a one-year, two-way deal.  The contract will pay him $700K in the NHL and $250K in the minors.  While he gets less at the NHL level than his qualifying offer, Di Giuseppe at least doubled his minor league salary from a year ago.

The 27-year-old joined the Rangers as a free agent signing last summer after being non-tendered by Nashville.  He spent most of the year with AHL Hartford where he potted 14 goals and 12 assists in 43 games but he also played in 20 games with New York during the regular season, recording four points while playing a little more than 11 minutes a night.  Di Giuseppe also suited up in all three of their playoff contests.

Depending on what other moves GM Jeff Gorton makes this offseason, it’s likely that Di Giuseppe will have a chance to earn a spot on New York’s fourth line next season.  If he doesn’t make it, he’ll have to pass through waivers in order to make it back to the Wolf Pack.

Jack Johnson, Anthony Bitetto Sign With New York Rangers

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The New York Rangers will see if they can squeeze some value out of Jack Johnson this season, as Darren Dreger of TSN reports they will sign the veteran defenseman to a one-year contract. Larry Brooks of the New York Post reports the deal will be worth $1.15MM.

Rangers fans might not like it after watching Johnson flame out in Pittsburgh and require a buyout, but the fact was they needed some depth options on the back end. Since moving Marc Staal there wasn’t a lot on the left side, with only Brendan Smith signed to a one-way deal. Ryan Lindgren should also play on that side, but there are still minutes to go around alongside the Rangers excellent right side.

If he’s playing 20 minutes a night, Johnson is a disaster. But at just over $1MM and on a one-year deal, there is almost no risk for the still-rebuilding Rangers.

For Johnson, this is just another chance to show he can still hack it in the NHL. Now 33, he’ll already be earning almost a million dollars from the Penguins in each of the next six seasons, meaning this deal only supplements his buyout money. Getting a chance to play with the up-and-coming contender will be a treat, even if things haven’t gone well in his last two Eastern Conference stops.

Speaking of depth defenders, John Matisz of theScore also reports that Anthony Bitetto has also signed with the Rangers. His will be a two-year, two-way contract that will pay $725K at the NHL level in 2020-21 and $750K in 2021-22.

New York Rangers Sign Colin Blackwell, Kevin Rooney

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The New York Rangers have added to their forward depth with a pair of shrewd signings. TSN’s Pierre LeBrun reports that the team has signed both Colin Blackwell and Kevin Rooney to two-year contracts. Blackwell’s deal carries a $725K AAV and is one-way in year two; Rooney’s deal carries a $750K AAV but is expected to be two-way.

Blackwell and Rooney are both 27-year-old Massachusetts natives and collegiate products with strong underlying numbers in limited NHL showings. Blackwell in particular recorded ten points in 27 games with the Nashville Predators this season and looked ready for a full-time NHL role. The Predators were trying to work out an extension with Blackwell, but he likely felt that he could find better opportunity elsewhere. Rooney might have a more limited ceiling, but has more experience and has played well in a fourth line role for the New Jersey Devils in back-to-back seasons of 41+ games.

The Rangers have also added a veteran No. 3 behind their young Russian tandem, inking goaltender Keith Kinkaid to a two-year deal with an $875K AAV, per PuckPedia. Kinkaid will also serve as a sacrificial lamb in the 2021 Expansion Draft, satisfying the under-contract goalie exposure requirement for the Rangers, who will protect Alexandar Georgiev with Igor Shesterkin ineligible.

New York has also agreed to terms with RFA defenseman Brandon Crawley, the team announced. Jonny Brodzinski and Anthony Greco were added later in the night.

Free Agent Focus: New York Rangers

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With free agency now just hours away, teams are preparing for a frenzy of action.  There will be several prominent players set to hit the open market while many teams have key restricted free agents to re-sign.  The Rangers don’t have many UFAs of note but their RFA class is going to be one to keep an eye on.

Key Restricted Free Agents

F Ryan Strome – While they were undecided about tendering him a qualifying offer until about two hours before Wednesday’s deadline, it wasn’t because they were unhappy with Strome’s performance but rather a concern about an arbitration award.  Those concerns may be well-founded as the 41 assists and 59 points were both new career benchmarks and have him well-positioned to earn a sizable raise on the $3.2MM salary he earned last season.  The fact they qualified him suggests there is some optimism they can avoid going to a hearing and the hope is that they’ll be able to sign him before it gets that far.

D Anthony DeAngelo – Last year, New York held the hammer and used it, basically leveraging DeAngelo into a cheap one-year deal with him not having any real leverage to work with.  The power has swung over to the other side now, however.  The 24-year-old had 52 career points heading into last season but managed to produce 53 points in 2019-20 despite not seeing an increase in playing time.  That performance has him well-positioned to land a substantial raise via an arbitrator and after the Rangers played things out to their advantage last season, expect DeAngelo to at least file for a hearing to give himself the leverage this time around.

G Alexandar Georgiev – Georgiev enters this offseason in the same spot he was a year ago, albeit behind a different starter this time around.  He has shown flashes of being a capable starter at times over his brief NHL career but inconsistency has been a challenge as well.  Just 24, it’s possible that New York pushes for a one-year or two-year deal to give them more time to evaluate his long-term upside and fit for his role while also giving themselves a bit more short-term cap flexibility with the Upper Limit flattened out.

Other RFAs: D Brandon Crawley, F Phillip Di Giuseppe, F Gabriel Fontaine, F Ryan Gropp, F Brendan Lemieux, D Darren Raddysh

10.2(c): F Dawson Leedahl (ineligible for an offer sheet)

Key Unrestricted Free Agents

F Jesper Fast – The 28-year-old has been a steady middle-six winger for the past five years and while he doesn’t put up a ton of points (he has ranged between 20 and 33 points in that span), he plays with an edge physically and is a capable penalty killer.  Even in a lowered cap environment, there should be a fair bit of interest but it appears it’ll be coming from elsewhere as Fast and the Rangers were well apart on contract terms leading up to the trade deadline.  Fast earned the 28th spot in our Top-50 UFA Rankings.

G Henrik Lundqvist – It was a move that had been anticipated for a while but the Rangers officially bought out the franchise legend back in September with Igor Shesterkin and Georgiev set to be their tandem of the present and future.  The 38-year-old has made it known that he wants to continue playing but he’ll be facing a significant drop in pay from the $8.5MM AAV he had before the buyout.  Washington has been widely speculated as a landing spot although other teams will certainly show interest in him in either a mentoring role or even a platoon situation.

Other UFAs: F Matt Beleskey, G Jean-Francois Berube, F Steven Fogarty, F Greg McKegg, F Micheal Haley, F Vinni Lettieri, F Boo Nieves, F Danny O’Regan

Projected Cap Space

On the surface, the Rangers have plenty of space to work with following the buyout of Lundqvist and the Marc Staal trade as they have roughly $58.8MM committed to 14 players, per CapFriendly.  But it won’t take long for that to be whittled away as they get their three primary RFAs re-signed and then fill out the rest of their roster.  There will be a bit of room to work with in the free agent or trade market but there shouldn’t be a splash like there was last year with the Artemi Panarin signing.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Rangers Believed To Have Interest In Brian Boyle

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Brian Boyle has bounced around the NHL over his 13-year career, playing for seven different organizations.  The longest he stayed in one place was in New York with the Rangers and Larry Brooks of the New York Post suggests that the Rangers may have interest in a reunion with the soon-to-be free agent.

The 35-year-old was limited to just 35 games with the Panthers last season although he managed to pick up 15 points in that span (six goals and nine assists), good for the second-highest point per game average of his career.  Of course, he was his usual strong self at the faceoff dot but he didn’t see as much penalty killing time as he normally does, logging just 30 seconds per game in that situation.

New York already has four centers on their roster but Brett Howden could certainly shift over to the wing to make room for Boyle who best profiles as a fourth liner at this stage of his career.  Brooks notes that the Rangers aren’t likely to sign Boyle right away as they will likely only be limited to offering a bargain contract and the veteran may want to wait things out if his asking price isn’t met right away.  He made $940K last season in Florida but could command a bit more this time around.

Rangers Loan Tarmo Reunanen To Mestis

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The Rangers have loaned defense prospect Tarmo Reunanen overseas as Tuto of the Mestis in Finland announced that they’ve added the blueliner on loan through December 15th.

It’s the season straight season that the 22-year-old has been loaned out as he spent all of last season with Lukko of the SM-liiga.  He put up respectable numbers offensively in his second full campaign with them, picking up 19 points in 51 games along with a +17 rating and 32 penalty minutes.

Reunanen is actually entering the second year of his entry-level deal without ever playing a regular season game on a playing surface inside North America.  When training camps get underway, he’ll report back to New York where he’s expected to start the season with AHL Hartford.

Los Angeles Kings Acquire Lias Andersson

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The New York Rangers have finally found a taker for Lias Andersson. The former top prospect is on his way to the Los Angeles Kings in exchange for the 60th overall pick in today’s draft. With the pick, the Rangers have selected William Cuylle.

Andersson was selected seventh overall in 2017 and is still actually under his entry-level contract, but has been playing in the SHL for some time. His father happens to be a scout in the Los Angeles organization and should have a good handle on how to go about the young forward’s development.

Even in 2017, Andersson was a surprise selection by the Rangers. He had been expected to go much lower in the first round, but New York obviously thought that he could become a star in the league. The biggest appeal for the young center was how polished he was, and Andersson proved it by playing seven games with the Rangers in that first year.

Unfortunately, the relationship quickly went downhill when he kept getting sent back to the minor leagues and the two sides eventually split last season. Andersson requested a trade and returned to the SHL where he has played since. He was even supposed to stay in Sweden for the 2020-21 season, though that will obviously be reconsidered now that he is in a different organization.

Perhaps the Kings can get the best out of the 21-year-old, but Andersson is heading into the final year of his entry-level contract. If he doesn’t receive an NHL opportunity right away, there is still the chance that he heads back to Sweden next offseason.

Calgary Flames Trade Down In 2020 Draft

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The Calgary Flames have traded down in the first round, sending the 19th overall pick to the New York Rangers in exchange for the 22nd and 72nd overall selections. With that 19th pick, the Rangers have decided to select Braden Schneider, the last remaining top-end defenseman available.

Schneider, who played for the Brandon Wheat Kings of the WHL, was ranked ninth among North American skaters by NHL Central Scouting. The Rangers had obviously already taken Alexis Lafreniere at the top of the draft and now add a defenseman to go with him. Notably, New York moved just ahead of the New Jersey Devils who had already taken two forwards in the first round and could have potentially nabbed Schneider with their third selection.

The big, mobile defenseman is known for his incredible competitiveness and should move quickly through the Rangers system thanks to a polished game in his own end. He has already played three full seasons in the WHL and scored 42 points in 60 games last season, though the offensive end of the rink isn’t where his eventual game is expected to land. Instead, his physicality and strong defensive stick will be a good counterpoint to young puck-movers like Adam Fox in the New York organization.

Calgary meanwhile then moved down again, trading the 22nd pick to the Washington Capitals for picks 24 and 80. With that 22nd pick, the Capitals ended up taking Hendrix Lapierre, one of the most interesting prospects in the entire draft.

Lapierre was once seen as a potential candidate to challenge for one of the very top picks in this draft. In 2018, he was the first pick in the QMJHL Entry Draft and scored 45 points in his first 48 junior games. Unfortunately, he was diagnosed with multiple concussions quickly afterward and played just 19 games last season. Earlier this year, Lapierre’s concussions were actually rediagnosed as a neck injury and he has recently been given a clean bill of health. He’s back playing in the QMJHL already, scoring five points in two games for Chicoutimi. He’ll need some time to re-establish himself as a top prospect, but the Capitals clearly felt as though they couldn’t wait.

By the time the Flames actually picked, they ended up taking Connor Zary with the 24th selection. Zary has spent the last three seasons playing for the Kamloops Blazers, scoring 86 points in 57 games last season. The WHL forward was ranked 15th among North American skaters by NHL Central Scouting and could have easily found his way into the top-20 picks, but Calgary found a way to trade down and still get their man. Armed with an incredible shot, Zary fired 38 missiles past junior goaltenders in 2019-20 and could be a candidate for the Canadian World Junior team this winter.

New York Rangers Select Alexis Lafreniere First Overall

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The New York Rangers have added another franchise talent. After selecting Kaapo Kakko with the second pick in 2019, the Rangers lucked into another lottery win this year and the right to select any draft-eligible player they want. Though names like Quinton Byfield or Tim Stuetzle may have been tempting in any other year, the team had no choice but to select the consensus top prospect Alexis Lafreniere.

There is almost nothing that Lafreniere can’t do on an ice rink. Growing up just outside of Montreal, it didn’t take long for prospect watchers to recognize that he may be one of the next great talents to come out of the province of Quebec.

When it came time for the 2017 QMJHL Entry Draft, there was little doubt who would be off the board first. The Rimouski Oceanic, the same junior program that had produced Sidney Crosby more than ten years earlier, selected Lafreniere ahead of Samuel Poulin and Jakob Pelletier, both players who ended up going in the first round of the 2019 NHL draft. Lafreniere was different though, and it wouldn’t take him long to show it.

Because of his late birthday—October 11th—Lafreniere would actually make his debut for Rimouski at age-15. He recorded 11 shots on goal over his first three games but would come away with just a single assist and four penalty minutes. It wasn’t until October 1st, ten days before his 16th birthday, when he would score his first two QMJHL goals. In the games that followed, he would add 40 to that total and lead the Rimouski in both goals and points despite being several years younger than his teammates. A CHL Rookie of the Year award awaited him following the 2017-18 season, along with plenty of other individual accolades.

They wouldn’t end there.

In each of the next two seasons, Lafreniere would not only lead his team in scoring, but dominate the competition on a nightly basis. In 113 regular season games he scored 217 points, winning CHL Player of the Year in each season despite leaving his team both years to compete in the World Juniors for Canada, the youngest player since Connor McDavid to make that prestigious roster.

At the most recent tournament, he showed everyone why he would be picked first by the Rangers ten months later. With Canada down 3-0 at the hands of Team Russia, a tournament powerhouse, Lafreniere would drive the net to try and get his team back into the game. His left knee would be trapped underneath his body as he attempted a backhand shot. The arena was silent as the consensus top prospect writhed in pain on the ice. Canada would lose that game 6-0 and looked like they had also lost their best player.

Fears of surgery and the end of his season raced through the thoughts of hockey fans all over the world, but an MRI after the game would report no structural damage. Lafreniere would return later in the tournament, just in time to lift the Canadians to a gold medal victory over that same Russian team. He would end up playing nearly 24 minutes for Canada in the gold medal matchup, recording an assist on two goals including the Barrett Hayton mark that tied it with just under nine minutes remaining.

Lafreniere had been the expected 2020 first-overall pick for years, but at that tournament, he sealed it. He’ll now join a young, dynamic Rangers team that already has a Hart Trophy candidate in Artemi Panarin and enough talent to really compete in the years to come.

A powerful skater, a brilliant playmaker and armed with a competitive drive that rivals anyone in the NHL. Lafreniere doesn’t shy away from contact like some outstanding offensive talents, in fact, he seeks it out all over the ice and improves his play in the biggest moments. Can he dominate for the Rangers as quickly as he has at every other level? We’ll have to wait to find out.

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