Salary Cap Deep Dive: New York Rangers
Navigating the salary cap is one of the most important tasks for a front office. Teams that can avoid total cap chaos by walking the tightrope of inking players to deals that match their value (or compensate for future value without breaking the bank) remain successful. Those who don’t often see struggles and front office changes.
PHR will look at every NHL team and give a thorough look at their cap situation for the 2025-26 season. This will focus more on players who are regulars on the roster versus those who may find themselves shuttling between the AHL and NHL. All cap figures are courtesy of PuckPedia. We’re currently covering the Metropolitan Division, next up are the Rangers.
New York Rangers
Current Cap Hit: $94,722,024 (below the $95.5MM Upper Limit)
Entry-Level Contracts
D Scott Morrow (one year, $916.7K)
Potential Bonuses
Morrow: $350K
Morrow was part of the return for K’Andre Miller earlier this summer and he will look to establish himself as a full-time NHL player with his new team after playing sparingly with the Hurricanes. Unless he can become a regular inside the top four, it’s unlikely his bonuses will be reached. A bridge deal is likely down the road with a good showing this season potentially pushing that price past the $2MM mark.
Signed Through 2025-26, Non-Entry-Level
F Jonny Brodzinski ($787.5K, UFA)
F Artemi Panarin ($11.643MM, UFA)
G Jonathan Quick ($1.55MM, UFA)
D Braden Schneider ($2.2MM, RFA)
D Carson Soucy ($3.25MM, UFA)
Potential Bonuses
Quick: $300K
Panarin’s pending free agency is shaping up to be one of the more intriguing ones. Signed to a record-setting deal the last time he hit the open market back in 2019, that won’t be the case next summer but he should still have strong value. Panarin has produced more than a point per game in each of his six seasons with the Rangers, while he’s fourth among all NHL players in points over that stretch, behind Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl, and Nathan MacKinnon. Pretty good company to be in. However, he’ll also be 34 and nearly 35 when his next contract starts so his best days will soon be behind him. A more medium-term agreement (three or four years) makes sense here and it’s possible such an agreement could land around the $10MM mark per season.
Brodzinski has done well the last couple of years, establishing himself as a back-of-the-roster player with a bit of offensive skill as he’s coming off a double-digit goal season. Capable of playing center and the wing, he’s the type of lower-cost role player that could get a bit more interest next summer, giving him a chance to push past the $1MM mark for the first time in his career.
Soucy was acquired near the trade deadline in a move GM Chris Drury might already be regretting as he played limited minutes down the stretch. He’s pricey for a sixth defender, especially with the team being tight to the Upper Limit. That said, Soucy might still land close to this amount on the open market next summer. Schneider had a solid first season of his bridge contract while locking down a top-four role for the first time. He’s someone they’d probably like to sign to a longer-term deal next time out but that might run them closer to $6MM. If they can’t afford that, then a one-year pact closer to $4MM might be the short-term fix.
Quick is back for his third season with the Rangers on his third one-year deal, an agreement that keeps going up in price each year. His base salary isn’t likely to go too much higher, at least with New York as they look to keep the second-string spot affordable. His bonuses are games played and performance-based but none of them are freebies; he’ll have to play with some regularity and perform well to get some of them.
Signed Through 2026-27
F Sam Carrick ($1MM, UFA)
F William Cuylle ($3.9MM, RFA)
F Justin Dowling ($775K, UFA)
F Adam Edstrom ($975K, RFA)
F Juuso Parssinen ($1.25MM, RFA)
F Taylor Raddysh ($1.5MM, UFA)
F Matt Rempe ($975K, RFA)
D Urho Vaakanainen ($1.55MM, UFA)
With the Rangers concerned about a possible offer sheet for Cuylle, they were able to get this done quickly enough to avoid the chance of that happening. It’s on the higher end for a player who only has 66 career points under his belt but power forwards get paid early and often and this deal should hold up fine. A long-term pact with arbitration rights next time out could come close to doubling this cost. Raddysh came over in free agency from Washington where he managed a respectable 27 points in largely a limited role. He’s not that far removed from a 20-goal campaign back with Chicago either but he’s likely to fill a regular spot in the bottom six. Unless he can get back to that offensive form he briefly showed with the Blackhawks, Raddysh is likely to remain in this price range.
Parssinen’s stock has dropped after a season that saw him slide down the depth chart in Nashville and Colorado before being moved to the Rangers at the trade deadline where he still didn’t reach 10 minutes a night of playing time. On the other hand, he’s still just 24 and has some room to stabilize. He’ll be owed a $1.3MM qualifying offer with arbitration rights so he’ll need to show he can lock down a full-time role over the next two years or become a potential non-tender candidate as New York will want to keep its back-of-roster spots cheap. Carrick was a low-cost add in free agency last summer and fared pretty well in a depth role, picking up 20 points and winning over 54% of his faceoffs. If he can do that for two more years, he could set himself up for a jump closer to the $1.75MM mark.
Edstrom and Rempe both had brief stints with Hartford last season in between seeing largely fourth-line minutes with the Rangers, making bridge deals the obvious way to go. They received identical contracts that buy the team more time to assess how much upside there still is. If they progress, something in the $1.5MM after arbitration rights could be doable. Dowling comes over from New Jersey after playing in a career-high 52 NHL games last season. He’s someone whose roster spot could be a little tenuous while history has shown that he’s likely to stay at the minimum salary moving forward.
Vaakanainen came over from Anaheim as part of the Jacob Trouba trade and got an opportunity to play largely a regular role upon returning from an injury. The 2017 first-round pick has been more of a depth player throughout his career but had arbitration rights which was enough to land him a small raise to avoid the risk of going to a hearing. He’ll need to show he can be more than a depth option if he wants to get more than this moving forward.
Should Miller Be A Candidate To Be Captain?
With most of the roster spots already set, there isn’t a lot of battles heading into training camp for the Rangers next month. With that in mind, Larry Brooks of the New York Post believes (subscription link) that their biggest decision in camp might by on the captaincy front. Namely, should they name one and if so, who might be the best candidate for the job? New York went without a captain for the bulk of the season after moving Jacob Trouba to Anaheim back in December. The Rangers have moved their last three captains within four years of them being appointed so ideally, whoever they name (if they name one) should be someone who’s going to be around for a while. Brooks suggests J.T. Miller as a viable candidate for the role; he was acquired as a culture-changer and has five years left on his contract.
Carey Terrance Making Positive Impression With Rangers' Development Staff
- Carey Terrance, the main asset acquired by the New York Rangers from the Anaheim Ducks for Chris Kreider, is already making positive impressions in the organization. In a recent interview with Dan Rosen of NHL.com, the Rangers’ player development coach, Jed Ortmeyer, said of Terrance, “He was like, ‘Yes, let me know. I want to be coached. You’re never going to hurt my feelings. I want to know. That was great to hear. He wants to be coached. He wants to get better and he’s hungry. He’s eager to learn and he wants to be great.“
[SOURCE LINK]
Rangers' Sean Barnhill Changes NCAA Commitment
One of the New York Rangers’ quality defensive prospects has changed his collegiate commitment. According to Mike McMahon of College Hockey Insider, instead of waiting until next season to join Northeastern University, defenseman Sean Barnhill will join Michigan State University for the upcoming campaign.
No Concern About Talks Between Rangers, RFA Dylan Garand
- The Rangers aren’t concerned about reaching an agreement with RFA goalie Dylan Garand, Peter Baugh of The Athletic writes. The 23-year-old is the organization’s top prospect between the pipes and is firmly entrenched as their third-stringer with Igor Shesterkin and Jonathan Quick still comprising their NHL tandem, but both sides see a pathway for him to make the jump to the NHL in 2026-27, Baugh writes. After posting sub-.900 save percentages in his first two professional seasons, Garand improved to a .913 mark in 39 games for the AHL’s Hartford Wolf Pack in 2024-25.
Brett Berard Fully Healthy After Playing Through Labrum Tear
Rangers winger Brett Berard played through most of his rookie season with a labrum tear, he told Mollie Walker of the New York Post.
Berard, who turns 23 in September, scored six goals and 10 points in 35 appearances for the Rangers last season while averaging 10:43 per game. The 2020 fifth-round pick will likely build on that deployment this season, as the Blueshirts’ roster turnover over the last few months means there are a couple of top-nine spots for the taking, one of which he’ll hope to grab. The diminutive but high-energy lefty also scored 23 points in 30 games for the AHL’s Hartford Wolf Pack last season.
Rangers' Brett Berard Played Through Torn Labrum
- New York Rangers winger Brett Berard played 35 games throughout his rookie campaign last season, but the majority of them were done so while playing through a significant injury. According to USA Today Sports reporter Vince Mercogliano, Berard suffered a torn labrum in his fourth game of the season on November 30 and played through it the rest of the season. The injury did not require surgery, and the offseason layoff has allowed Berard to return to full health ahead of training camp. In those 35 games, Berard produced six goals and 10 points.
Blake Wheeler Reaffirms Retirement
July 19, 2025: Wheeler again ruled out a comeback bid when speaking with Cam Poitras and Jim Toth on 680 CJOB’s Jets at Noon program earlier this week. “I just haven’t felt like a rush to like make a formal announcement or anything,” Wheeler said. “But yeah, after my injury and kinda the way things ended last year, I just didn’t have anything left in the tank for it. So yeah, I was at peace with it almost immediately after last year and yeah, I’m just enjoying being a dad and kinda slowing things down a little bit, and being around my family.”
Dec. 19, 2024: Winger Blake Wheeler has all but officially decided on retirement, as Paul Friesen of The Winnipeg Sun relays. Neither Wheeler nor the NHL Players’ Association has released a statement. Still, the former Jets captain told Dan Leffelaar of the Beyond High Performance podcast earlier this week that “there’s only so much gas in the tank” emotionally for an 82-game regular season.
In July, Wheeler, 38, hit unrestricted free agency after completing a one-year, $1.1MM contract with the Rangers. He joined the Blueshirts for the final season of his NHL career after having the captaincy stripped from him in Winnipeg in 2022 and seeing the final season of his five-year, $41.25MM contract with an $8.25MM cap hit bought out a year later. There wasn’t much buzz around his services on the UFA market aside from a report in August from Shawn Hutcheon of The Fourth Period that the Bruins were considering extending him a professional tryout. One way or another that never came to fruition, and Wheeler didn’t appear with any club during training camp.
A serious leg injury sustained in February ended his final regular season prematurely. However, he did return to the active roster near the end of New York’s second-round playoff win over the Hurricanes. He was a frequent healthy scratch upon returning to the lineup, though, with a lone postseason appearance against the Panthers in Game 4 of the Eastern Conference Final likely standing as his final NHL appearance. In 54 regular-season appearances with the Rangers, he posted nine goals and 12 assists for 21 points with a +2 rating while averaging a career-low 12:43 per game.
Wheeler was a highly touted prospect. In the 2004 draft, the Coyotes selected him fifth overall, immediately after eventual longtime teammate Andrew Ladd was taken off the board by the Hurricanes. However, he opted not to sign in Phoenix. He took the long route through college at the University of Minnesota before becoming a free agent in 2008 and signing with the Bruins.
The right-winger’s debut season was solid, posting 21 goals and 45 points with a +36 rating in 81 games as Boston won 53 games and finished atop the Eastern Conference. He was one of many future under-25 impact players on that Bruins squad, featuring Patrice Bergeron, Milan Lucic, Phil Kessel and David Krejčí in the infancies of their careers. However, after his goal-scoring dropped off slightly in his second and third years in the league, Boston traded him to the Thrashers before the 2011 deadline for Rich Peverley.
Wheeler racked up 17 points in 23 games down the stretch for Atlanta, giving Thrashers fans a bittersweet taste of things to come for his production before the team packed up and moved to Winnipeg in the offseason. Now entirely in the prime of his career at age 25, Wheeler kicked off a dominant nine-year stretch in Winnipeg that saw him record 569 points in 616 games, ranking eighth in the NHL scoring between the 2011-12 and 2018-19 campaigns. His 384 assists during that time were fourth, trailing only Nicklas Bäckström, Sidney Crosby and Claude Giroux. He received All-Star consideration eight years in a row and finished as high as eighth in Hart Trophy voting in 2017-18 when he led the league with 68 assists in 81 outings.
After a 20-goal, 91-point showing in 2018-19, 2019-20 spelled out the beginning of Wheeler’s decline. He still managed a respectable 65 points in 71 games that year before the COVID-19 pandemic hit. However, that was accompanied by an artificially high 12.2% shooting rate and a significant drop-off in his assist totals. He kept up reasonable offensive production in his final three seasons in Winnipeg, logging 161 points in 187 games. But the Minnesota native became a defensive liability as he aged and became a significant drag on the Jets’ possession quality control at even strength. Combined with just three playoff series wins during his time in Winnipeg, including a run to the 2018 Western Conference Final in which he had 21 points in 17 games, the Jets parted ways with their captain and bought him out.
While the end of Wheeler’s career may have been marred by declining all-around play and injuries, the former All-Star was a high-end top-line talent throughout the 2010s. The 6’5 “, 225-lb right-winger puts a bow on his career with 321 goals and 622 assists for 943 points in 1,172 regular-season games. He logged a +67 rating, posted 764 PIMs, and racked up nearly 3,000 career shots on goal, averaging 18:11 per game. He pairs that strong regular-season production with 10 goals and 45 points in 66 career postseason games. Pro Hockey Rumors congratulates Wheeler on a phenomenal career.
Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.
Why Rangers Might Want To Wait On Panarin Extension Talks
Players in the final year of a multi-year contract are now eligible to sign contract extensions. A few have but most of the headline names in the 2026 UFA class have yet to do so, including Rangers winger Artemi Panarin. Vincent Z. Mercogliano of the Rockland/Westchester Journal News argues that New York should hold off on trying to get the 33-year-old locked up to a new deal right away, wondering if there might be an opportunity to get a younger top-liner on the open market next summer when they will have a significant amount of cap space. Panarin saw his production drop considerably last season after putting up a career-high 120 points in 2023-24 but he still managed 37 goals and 52 assists in 80 games to lead New York in scoring once again. Panarin has a $11.643MM cap charge and given that he’ll be 34 when his next deal starts, he’ll be in tough to match that price tag at that time.
Jaroslav Halak Announces Retirement
Veteran goalie Jaroslav Halak is ending his playing career, telling Tomas Prokop of the Slovak website Dennik Sport that he’s officially retired.
Halak, 40, hasn’t played anywhere in the last two seasons aside from a brief tryout with the Hurricanes that didn’t result in game action early in 2023-24. A ninth-round pick in the 2003 draft, his 17-year NHL career included time with the Canadiens, Blues, Capitals, Islanders, Bruins, Canucks, and Rangers, last playing in New York’s final game of the 2022-23 regular season.
Montreal was the team that drafted him 271st overall from the QMJHL’s Lewiston MAINEiacs, and that’s where Halak got his start in the NHL three years later. He emerged as another young complement in the Canadiens’ pool alongside young star Carey Price, even taking over the starter’s role in the 2009-10 season and backstopping the team to a surprise run to the Conference Finals before being traded to St. Louis for Lars Eller the following summer.
Halak never spent more than four years with a club in his prime and was prone to year-to-year inconsistency, but he was an arguable top-10 goalie in the league at his absolute peak with multiple seasons of save percentages above .920. He was always more of a 1A option than a true starter, only playing more than 50 games four times, but he ends his career as a one-time All-Star, two-time Jennings Trophy winner, and he finished top-10 in Vezina Trophy voting twice.
After serving as the 1A option for the Blues from 2010-14 and on Long Island from 2014-18 with a brief post-deadline stop in Washington in between, Halak spent the twilight years of his career as one of the league’s better backup options for Boston (2018-21), Vancouver (2021-22), and the Rangers (2022-23). He’s been an unrestricted free agent since then, with no items of note on his NHL future since being released from his aforementioned PTO with Carolina in November 2023.
In 581 regular-season appearances, the Bratislava native posted a 2.50 GAA and .913 SV% with a 295-189-63 record and 53 shutouts. One of the best undersized netminders (5’11”, 189 lbs) of his generation, he posted an even better .919 SV% and 2.48 GAA in 39 playoff games in six trips to the Stanley Cup playoffs.
All of us at PHR wish Halak the best in retirement.
Image courtesy of Wendell Cruz-Imagn Images.