The Rangers signed one of the restricted free agents, locking up Jesper Fast to a three-year deal, His signing leaves Mika Zibanejad as the team's only unsigned RFA. Interestingly, the Rangers' announcement had the contract terms.
OFFICIAL: #NYR have agreed to terms with restricted free agent forward Jesper Fast on a three-year contract with an AAV of $1.85 million. pic.twitter.com/Prgan6bBCH
— New York Rangers (@NYRangers) July 5, 2017
Fast, selected by the Rangers in the sixth round, 157th overall, of the 2010 NHL Entry Draft, has proven to be a swiss-army knife player for New York. He can move up and down the lineup, but is best suited to the third or fourth line, as seen by the chart below. Fast brings a full effort nightly, has been a stalwart on the penalty kill and is one of the players trusted late in games by AV due to his strong defensive play (55.39 Corsi against per 60 and 2.33 expected goals against per 60 at 5v5 last season). Wonder if we see a third line of Grabner-Desharnais-Fast?
I had predicted three years in the $1.75-2 mil range. Getting him locked him longer-term and at a solid rate is a win, win for GM Jeff Gorton, who once again is having an excellent off-season. Once Kevin Klein retires, the Rangers will have $8.55 mil in available cap space. Presuming Zib costs $4.5-5 mil, that leaves money to play with to add another center and maybe a winger or two, especially with Fast coming off hip surgery and likely out all of October and possibly part of November.
@HockeyStatMiner spreadsheet showing Rangers' cap spending and remaining room:
Assuming Klein retires & Holden is traded...#NYR now with ~$9m in cap space to re-up Zibanejad, a "3rd" center, and a 14th fringe forward pic.twitter.com/cYDbgVIKO1
— HockeyStatMiner (@HockeyStatMiner) July 5, 2017
More to come...