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Rangers, Matthew Robertson Agree To Two-Way Deal

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The Rangers have come to terms on a new one-year deal for RFA defender Matthew Robertson, the team announced Monday. It’s a two-way deal, per Mollie Walker of the New York Post.

Robertson, 23, was coming off the final season of his entry-level contract. He’ll stick around in the Big Apple for at least another season while he tries to get what was once a promising development path back on track.

The 2019 second-round pick carries appealing size at 6’4″ and 201 lbs, but the left-shot defender hasn’t yet been able to work his way up to making his NHL debut. He received a handful of call-ups last season as injury insurance but didn’t get into any game action. He’s displayed solid puck-moving ability while on assignment to AHL Hartford, totaling 55 points over 190 games during his three professional campaigns. But like most of his teammates over the past few years, he hasn’t had a standout impact defensively, posting a cumulative -25 rating and never logging anything better than a -7.

With Erik Gustafsson out of the picture from last season’s defense group, there’s a little bit of increased opportunity for depth defenders in the Rangers organization. Robertson will hope to take advantage of that, but he’ll need to jockey for positioning with some more experienced names slated for minor-league action to start the year, such as Connor Mackey and UFA addition Casey Fitzgerald.

Robertson will be an RFA again next summer upon expiry.

Rangers Re-Sign Braden Schneider

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The Rangers have agreed to terms with one of their remaining restricted free agents, announcing that they’ve reached a two-year contract with defenseman Braden Schneider.  While financial terms were not disclosed, PuckPedia adds (Twitter link) that the agreement pays $1.76MM in 2024-25 and $2.64MM in 2025-26 for a $2.2MM AAV.  That last number will serve as his qualifying offer in 2026 where he will have salary arbitration eligibility.

The 22-year-old was a first-round pick by New York in 2020, going 19th overall.  He has been a full-time NHL regular since partway through his rookie professional season, giving him more than 200 career NHL appearances which is something that can’t be said for many players exiting their entry-level pacts.

However, Schneider has had a very limited role in his first three seasons.  Last season, he played in all 82 games, notching 19 points along with 133 blocks and 167 hits.  However, his playing time remained below the 16-minute mark, a number he has yet to surpass in those three years.  Notably, even as a physical defensive defender, Schneider barely averaged one minute per game in shorthanded situations last season.

Between limited offensive output and what has basically been a permanent spot on the third pairing so far, a bridge contract was the only logical outcome for both sides.  Schneider will need to play his way into a top-four opportunity over the next couple of years before he’ll have a chance to command a longer-term, bigger-money agreement.

With this signing, New York now has a little over $5.1MM in cap space, per PuckPedia.  The majority of that will be earmarked for their last remaining restricted free agent, defenseman Ryan Lindgren.  The 26-year-old filed for salary arbitration earlier this month with a hearing date yet to be set.

Lohud’s Vince Z. Mercogliano reported earlier this week that the two sides were making progress on a bridge agreement.  Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman first reported the terms of the deal.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Jacob Trouba Used No-Trade Protection To Block Deal To Detroit

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  • In a report from Stefen Rosner of The Hockey News and later confirmed by Emily Kaplan of ESPN, there was a trade in place between the New York Rangers and Detroit Red Wings that would have sent defenseman Jacob Trouba to his hometown team. However, with Trouba’s no-movement clause turning into a modified no-trade clause on July 1st, Trouba added Detroit to his list which entirely ended the deal. Trouba was hesitant to move his wife and family out of New York as his wife is finishing up her residency as a medical doctor as outlined in the report from Kaplan.

    [SOURCE LINK]

Rangers Re-Sign Chad Ruhwedel To Two-Way Deal

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The Rangers have signed defenseman Chad Ruhwedel to a one-year contract, the team announced Friday. The right-shot blue liner lands a two-way deal with a $775K cap hit, reports Vince Z. Mercogliano of USA Today Sports. He’ll earn $400K in the minors with a $450K guarantee, PuckPedia adds.

Ruhwedel, 34, had a challenging season in 2023-24. He made 47 appearances for the Penguins, where he’s suited up since signing as a free agent in 2016, scoring once and adding three assists for four points. While he’s never been relied upon for offense, he’s normally had serviceable possession metrics in a fringe bottom-pairing role. That wasn’t the case last season, though, as his 48.0 CF% and 46.9 xGF% were his worst as a Penguin. With Pittsburgh out of the playoff race, the Rangers picked Ruhwedel up at the trade deadline for some added blue-line insurance in exchange for a 2027 fourth-round pick. He played in just five regular season games down the stretch and didn’t see any playoff action for the Blueshirts, though.

But Ruhwedel does have a longer track record of serving as an above-average seventh defender, a form New York could be banking on him returning to. Since making his debut for the Sabres back in 2012-13, Ruhwedel has amassed 13 goals, 36 assists, 49 points and a -9 rating in 364 contests while averaging 15:08 per game. He’s historically managed average possession metrics and is a fine two-way talent to deploy in a third-pairing role, although he doesn’t have any upside on special teams.

The Rangers being able to bring Ruhwedel back on a two-way deal is a tad intriguing, considering he hasn’t seen AHL ice since a five-game stint in 2018-19. For now, he still projects to win a roster spot out of camp as an extra defenseman, although his path to regular minutes is disadvantageous with Adam Fox, Braden Schneider and Jacob Trouba ahead of him on their RD depth chart. He’d have a shot at competing with Zachary Jones for a steady third-pairing role if he were a lefty, but that isn’t the case. They have a vacancy there after Erik Gustafsson departed for the Red Wings in free agency.

With parts of 12 NHL seasons under his belt, Ruhwedel would be an attractive claim candidate if he hits waivers in the fall or during the season.

Steven Fogarty Announces Retirement

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Longtime minor league fixture Steven Fogarty has retired, he announced on his personal Instagram account on Monday morning.

Fogarty, 31, played parts of six NHL seasons and totaled nine total seasons after turning pro after a collegiate career at Notre Dame in 2016. The Rangers selected him out of Minnesota’s Edina High in the third round of the 2011 draft, but he played an additional season of junior hockey with the BCHL’s Penticton Vees, plus a full four years with the Irish before turning pro and signing his entry-level deal with New York. Serving as a dependable call-up for four years and playing an important role on the farm with AHL Hartford, wearing the “C” there for his last season in the Rangers organization, he went without a point and posted a -2 rating in 18 appearances before becoming a UFA in 2020.

He landed on a one-year, two-way deal with the Sabres for the COVID-shortened 2020-21 season, holding down a similar role to what he’d held in New York. Fogarty was named the captain of AHL Rochester that year but only played in 16 minor league games. He spent other chunks of the season on the taxi squad and briefly on the Sabres’ active roster, where he recorded his first and only three NHL points (one goal, two assists) in nine showings.

Fogarty spent the following three seasons on two-way deals with the Bruins and Wild, adding another four NHL appearances to bring his career total to 31. He’d spent the last two years under contract with Minnesota, where his last NHL action came in a two-game stint in November 2022. Fogarty spent all of 2023-24 on assignment to AHL Iowa, where he served as an alternate captain for the second season in a row and had 37 points (18 goals, 19 assists) in 69 games with a -21 rating.

A UFA for the past week, he now steps away from a lengthy minor-league career that included 106 goals, 162 assists, 268 points, 282 PIMs, and a -80 rating in 464 games in parts of nine AHL seasons, along with his three points in 31 NHL games. PHR congratulates Fogarty on his pro career and wishes him the best in his post-playing endeavors.

Rangers Loan Kalle Vaisanen To Finnish League For 2024-25 Season

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Back in April, the Rangers signed winger Kalle Vaisanen to his entry-level deal and it looked like he’d be playing his first full season in North America in 2024-25.  However, that won’t be the case as Ilves in Finland’s Liiga announced that New York has agreed to loan Vaisanen to them for the upcoming year although he might participate in training camp with the Rangers in the fall before going over.

The 21-year-old was a fourth-round pick by New York back in 2021, going 106th overall after a strong showing offensively in Finland’s junior system.  Vaisanen has spent the last two full seasons at the top level but unfortunately for him, production has been rather difficult to come by.  He had five points in 47 games in 2022-23 and only boosted that output to nine goals and five helpers in 58 games with TPS last season but impressed enough to get his first contract and a late-season stint with AHL Hartford.

While it would have made sense for Vaisanen to get a full season in with the Wolf Pack, they’ve decided it’s better to let him get another year in back at home though he’ll now do so with a new team.  Once his campaign in Finland comes to an end, Vaisanen will likely return to North America and could very well get into a handful of games in Hartford as he did last season.

Ryan Lindgren Files For Arbitration

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Per Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman and originally produced by the National Hockey Leaguer Players’ Association, 14 players have elected for salary arbitration this summer. The deadline for team-elected arbitration is tomorrow. Friedman also notes the arbitration hearings will happen between July 20th and August 4th. To add context, not every one of these players will appear for a hearing with their respective teams as they may continue to negotiate on a new contract. However, each player who elects for salary arbitration is now prohibited from negotiating with other teams or signing an offer sheet. Here is a list of the players that have elected for arbitration:

F Beck Malenstyn (Buffalo Sabres)
G Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen (Buffalo Sabres)
F Martin Necas (Carolina Hurricanes)
F Jack Drury (Carolina Hurricanes)
D Jake Christiansen (Columbus Blue Jackets)
G Jet Greaves (Columbus Blue Jackets)
F Kirill Marchenko (Columbus Blue Jackets)
F Joe Veleno (Detroit Red Wings)
D Spencer Stastney (Nashville Predators)
F Oliver Wahlstrom (New York Islanders)
D Ryan Lindgren (New York Rangers)
D Ty Emberson (San Jose Sharks)
D J.J. Moser (Tampa Bay Lightning)
F Connor Dewar (Toronto Maple Leafs)

Rangers' Gabe Perreault Returning To NCAA

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Josh Yohe of The Athletic is reporting that the Pittsburgh Penguins have made a contract offer to free agent forward Vladimir Tarasenko. Fresh off the second Stanley Cup of his career and his first with the Florida Panthers, Tarasenko passed through the first day of free agency unsigned. It’s familiar territory for the 32-year-old as he didn’t sign a contract last summer until July 27th.

Tarasenko is no longer a perennial 30-goal scorer, but he remains a solid option on the wing, particularly for the Penguins who are looking for short-term options to play alongside Sidney Crosby. Tarasenko had a good year for Ottawa and Florida, tallying 23 goals and 32 assists in 76 regular season games.

The Penguins have just $3.5MM in available cap space (as per CapFriendly) at the moment but could bury salary in the AHL to open up room should they decide to do so. They also have a stockpile of fourth-line options and could presumably trade Lars Eller or Noel Acciari to open up room for Tarasenko.

In other Metropolitan Division notes:

  • Vince Z. Mercogliano of USA Today tweeted that New York Rangers forward prospect Gabe Perreault will be going back to Boston College for his sophomore season in the NCAA. The Rangers’ 2023 first-round pick (23rd overall) isn’t sure what direction he will go after the season but given his numbers last year in the NCAA (19 goals and 41 assists in 36 games) it’s fair to wonder if he’ll turn pro. Perreault is the son of former NHLer Yanic Perreault and shares many of the same on-ice traits as his father, right down to their height at 5’11”. He has yet to sign his entry-level contract but at this point, it doesn’t appear to be an issue that is bothering Rangers management.
  • David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period tweeted that the Carolina Hurricanes will be hiring a new president for the organization with an announcement coming in the coming weeks. Former president and general manager Don Waddell resigned back in May and his GM duties were eventually handed off to Eric Tulsky. Waddell oversaw the Hurricanes’ business operations for nearly ten years after he was hired back on July 1st, 2014. There are no indications as to who the Hurricanes new president could be, and it will add another layer of change to an organization that has seen quite a bit of it over the past six weeks. Carolina was busy in the first two days of free agency as they looked to replace the losses of Brett Pesce and Jake Guentzel who both signed elsewhere.

Rangers Sign Casey Fitzgerald, Benoit-Olivier Groulx

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The Rangers have added some NHL-experienced depth on cheap deals. Defenseman Casey Fitzgerald is joining on a two-year contract, while forward Benoit-Olivier Groulx is heading to New York on a one-year pact after being non-tendered by the Ducks, per a team announcement. Fitzgerald’s is a two-way deal in 2024-25 before converting to a one-way deal in 2025-26, while Groulx’s is a two-way deal, Mollie Walker of the New York Post reports.

Fitzgerald, 27, is coming off a one-year, two-way deal with the Panthers that saw him buried in the minors for the entire season for the first time since 2020-21. He played in 69 games on assignment to the AHL’s Charlotte Checkers, notching four goals and 17 assists for 21 points with a +22 rating and 65 PIMs.

The son of Devils GM Tom Fitzgerald has played 148 career AHL games across five seasons in the Panthers and Sabres organizations, recording 55 points (13 goals, 42 assists). He has also skated in 63 NHL games in Buffalo and Florida in the 2021-22 and 2022-23 campaigns, collecting nine assists and a -21 rating. He’s still on the hunt for his first major league goal. He was originally a third-round pick of the Sabres in 2016.

The physical right-shot blue liner is expected to start the season on assignment to AHL Hartford but will be an outside candidate to land a spot on the NHL roster out of camp as an extra defenseman. His main competition for the role as it stands will be Connor Mackey. Either way, there’s an increased opportunity for the Rangers’ depth defenders to find NHL minutes next season with Erik Gustafsson and Chad Ruhwedel hitting free agency.

Groulx, 24, was a second-round pick of the Ducks back in 2018 but hit the open market early after a disappointing 2023-24 campaign, recording only two assists and a -9 rating in 45 games for Anaheim while averaging 12:11 per game. He’s scored only once in 65 NHL games dating back to his debut in 2021-22. He can play both left wing and center but has struggled in the faceoff dot at the NHL level, winning 44.4% of his draws.

His possession impacts in Anaheim have been quite poor, too, but he could carry some value as a cheap energy winger, especially for what’s likely a league-minimum cap hit. He finished seventh on the Ducks in hits (101) last season and has good size at 6’2″ and nearly 200 lbs. He’ll enter camp competing with UFA addition Sam Carrick and familiar faces Jonny Brodzinski, Adam Edstrom and Matt Rempe for a fourth-line/extra forward role.

Rangers Acquire Reilly Smith From Penguins

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The Rangers are expected to acquire winger Reilly Smith in a trade with the Penguins, per Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman. Pittsburgh is receiving a second-round pick and a fifth-round pick in return, The Athletic’s Shayna Goldman reports. The teams confirmed the second-rounder is in 2027 and the fifth-rounder is a conditional 2025 selection. The Penguins are retaining 25% of Smith’s salary, bringing his cap hit down from $5MM to $3.75MM for New York. The conditional 2025 fifth-rounder will be the worse of the two picks New York owns in that round – theirs and the Wild’s.

The Penguins are moving on from Smith after just one season, having acquired him in exchange for a 2024 third-round pick during the 2023 NHL Draft. Smith went on to total 13 goals and 40 points, failing to translate his strong scoring upside to a shakier role with the Penguins. He was much more robust in Vegas; one of many players to see a breakout year in Vegas’ inaugural season, scoring 22 goals and 60 points in 67 games and adding 22 points in 20 postseason games. He held onto the scoring through his next five years with the Golden Knights, consistently rivaling 50-point pace and even twice topping 25 goals.

Smith has developed into a capable middle-six scorer, whose offense held up even amidst an inconsistent role in Pittsburgh. What’s better, he’s an unrestricted free agent next summer, giving the Rangers a chance to test out his roster fit before committing to him long-term. The Rangers have rotated through veteran scorers over the last few seasons, cycling in players like Patrick Kane, Vladimir Tarasenko, and Blake Wheeler. Smith will be the latest iteration, set for the same role in the lineup as his predecessors.

But unlike those before him, Smith offers the perk of playoff consistency, having totaled 26 goals and 79 points across 106 postseason appearances, including 14 points in 22 games during Vegas’ 2023 Stanley Cup run. The Rangers have boasted some of the best offenses in the league over the last few seasons, only to fall short in the Eastern Conference Finals in both 2022 and 2024. A lack of goal-scoring depth has proven the fault both times, forcing New York to lean on, and quickly tire out, their stars.

Smith could also provide a good shot to match Alexis Lafreniere’s quick playmaking, with the pair likely bound for New York’s second line. Lafreniere was among the most polarizing Rangers late in the season, scoring eight goals and 14 points in 16 playoff games after netting a career-high 28 goals and 57 points in the regular season. Veteran additions like Smith could point towards New York’s investment in yet another young star, though that will ultimately sit with how Peter Laviolette chooses to deploy his top-six.

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