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Rangers RFA Qualifying Offes, Prospect Camp Opens, Hockey Hall of Fame |
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Random bits of info:
Monday at 5pm was the deadline for teams to extend qualifying offers to their players. The Rangers extended offers to Chris Kreider, JT, Miller, Kevin Hayes, Dylan McIlrath, Tommy Hughes, Mat Bodie, Marek Hrivik and Nicklas Jensen. The Rangers RFAs who did not get qualifying offers were: Luke Adam, Michael St. Croix, Chris McCarthy, Josh Nichols, Mike Kantor and Sam Noreau. The minimum salaries for those extended QOs are: Kreider, $2.6 million, Hayes, $945,000; Miller, $917,000; Jensen, $874,125; McIlrath, $660,000, and Marek Hrivik, $632,500.
The above list doesn't come as a big surprise. Kreider, Miller and Hayes are arbitration eligible, meaning that signing them won't be as easy as just offering the QO, usually 10% above the prior contract. In the cases of Kreider and Miller, the negotiations could get a bit sticky and decisions will need to be made by New York as to which ones - if any - of the three are signed long term.
Nashville locked up Filip Forsberg to a six-year, $36 million contract. Montreal inked Andrew Shaw, who they acquired on draft night from Chicago for a pair of picks, to a six-year, $23.4 million deal. Kreider, coming off a two-year, $4.95 million bridge deal, likely will be looking for a deal between both of the above-mentioned contracts with a similar term. Somewhere in the $4.25-$4.75 million range seems to a realistic expectation. New York may be unwilling to go that to length of a deal or to those dollars, though he is likely to get on the range in arbitration.
JT Miller is coming off a breakout season during which he made just $874k. He took a bet on himself last year by only signing a one-year; a move that looks like it will pay great dividends. To me, it wouldn't be shocking if he tripled his pay this year, making inking him to a multi-year deal at a decent price a priority.
Hayes is the real wild card. Despite the ELC, he made over $2 mil in bonus as a rookie. Last year, he didn't come to meeting the thresholds to earn those bonuses. New York would appear to hold a bit of leverage here, as despite some solid advanced metrics, they might be able to defeat Hayes in arb hearing. In addition, with Hayes, the Rangers most likely will look to go with a one-year deal. The same is probable with McIlrath.
Once again, we keep hearing that teams might prepare offer sheets to RFAs. For all the talk that it never really happens, eventually it will and New York could be a risk of it does. Over the weekend, it was posed that if the Isles for example signed Kreider to a six-year deal with a $5.4 mil AAV, do you match it? Per the below, if the Rangers don't, they would be entitled to first and third picks. If they did, due to the team's cap constraints, buying out Girardi would almost become a must, same with dealing others for pennies on the dollar.
RFA rules with compensation:
AAV Compensation
Under $1,239,226 No Compensation
$1,239,227 to $1,877,615 Third Round Pick
$1,877,616 to $3,755,233 Second Round Pick
$3,755,234 to $5,632,847 First and Third Round Picks
$5,632,848 to $7,510,464 First, Second, & Third Round Picks
$7,510,465 to $9,388,080 Two Firsts Round Picks, One Second & One Third Round Pick
$9,388,081 or higher Four First Round Picks
One other factor that will drive free agent decisions and whether to match if an RFA does get an offer sheet is the expansion rules. Each team will be able to protect seven forwards, three defencemen and one goaltender or eight skaters and one goaltender. Any player with a no-movement clause in his contract must be protected, and each team will lose one player. Those rules will also be a factor at the trade deadline, since obtaining expiring players will take even a greater priority to avoid using a spot that's needed for a younger player. First or second year player do not have to be exposed, but young players beyond that will, which is likely who teams look to retain and expose big dollar contracts. One example is Nashville, who have Weber, Josi, Ekholm and Ellis. Of the four, despite what he means to the team, Weber is the most likely to be exposed due to the years and dollars remaining on his deal.
While yesterday was the deadline for teams to offer QOs, if one was not offered, that doesn't mean the player is gone. Squads appear to be avoiding qualifying offers on some cases to try and keep the prices down and save a few dollars to re-sign the player. New Jersey is doing that with Devante-Smith Pelly and Jon Merrill. That is not the case for all, which looks to be the case with Brandon Pirri, Joe Colborne and Brett Connolly, just to list two. Pirri was one who I wanted NY to get at the deadline last year and wouldn't mind him on a one-year deal this season.
Here is the list of RFAs not given a QO: https://t.co/nSHVXRg7K7
Monday was the Rangers prospect camp and with it, the first look at Pavel Buchnevich, who signed his ELC in May. The weight training that Buchnevich started two weeks will be critical, as he clearly needs to add weight and strength. Right now, he down at look like he could physically handle playing in the NHL, but if adds a bit of bulk and muscle over the next two-plus months, it's possible that might change.
Congrats to Eric Lindros, Sergei Makarov, Rogie Vachon and Pat Quinn on their election to the Hockey Hall of Fame. Lindros, whose career and production was cut short due to injury, was actually traded to the Rangers twice but only played for three years in New York towards the end of career, coming over for several players, including Kim Johnsson and Pavel Brendl. A fairly worthy class, though Vachon is probably the weakest of the class. In addition, why Vachon over Mark Recchi, Dave Andreychuk and Paul Kariya or a better question is why none of those three also got in. The same can be asked about why no woman nominees made it in this year?
New York Rangers Blogger • 
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