The band was nearly all the way back together, yet there was one missing piece. Heading into Wednesday, John Moore had yet to sign on the dotted line. That is no longer the case, as Moore inked his one-year, $850k qualifying offer today. I am unsure how GM Glen Sather does it, yet he seems to be able to get RFAs to sign at ridiculously low, bargain basement prices when we all expect that not to be the case. especially since Columbus gave Denis Savard a two-year, $1.3 mil per season contract.
I wrote on August 26th (http://www.hockeybuzz.com/blog.php?post_id=61970) that I expected Moore to sign likely around this amount, since he had no leverage, so I guess I shouldn't be shocked that this occurred. To me, a two-year deal at a mild increase would have been preferable to lock in his salary and him up with the team, but Moore likely opted for the one-year deal to try and get a bigger contract next season. He will be paired with Kevin Klein on the third-line and the Rangers now have all of their top-six defensemen signed and ready for camp.
The good news didn't end there or more precisely, it did but started earlier in the day when Pat Leonard reported that Marc Staal’s agent says that he and the Rangers have had “productive… discussions about a long-term contract extension. I wrote on July 31st (http://www.hockeybuzz.com/blog.php?post_id=61594) how I hopd both sides would come to an agreement and wanted Staal to remain a Ranger. Given how poorly and dragged out the Girardi, Lundqvist and Callahan negotiations went last season, getting an early jump on it behooves all, especially Sather and the organization.
What I wrote then applies now.
With the cap rising and since Staal has a $3.975 cap hit and $5.45 million salary this year, my view is that a rise of $2 million per year in the cap hit can be met, even while factoring in the other contracts needed to be doled or already doled out.
Staal wants to be here. The organization seems to also want him to be here. Find a way to get it done, so they can move on to locking up Stepan, Zuccarello and Hagelin.