New York Rangers Beginning To Look Different

New York Rangers right wing Danny Kristo recently accepted his qualifying offer

Sergei Belski-USA TODAY Sports

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After a couple of weeks of open free agency the New York Rangers have lost some key players but added some nice young talent that may better fit how Alain Vigneault wants his team to play-BT Farley 

When

hired

as head coach of the New York Rangers, and gave him John Tortarella’s team aside from some free agent players signed from the scrap heap last summer.

was a low risk signing and an Alain Vigneault type skilled player with two-way ability. Now

finished a successful season in New York and cashed in on the unrestricted market. He had the best season of his career and

wanted to keep him in a New York Rangers uniform. He was smart not to go anywhere near what he got from Edmonton.

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There’s a lot of hard negotiating for

and his staff to partake in over the next month or two. Restricted Free Agent

received a qualifying offer of $3.7 million, the least allowed by the newest Collective Bargaining Agreement. He declined that offer and elected to go to arbitration.

also a Restricted Free Agent had a cap hit  $850,500 He also declined that offer and will go before an arbitrator on July 23. Then there’s

who led the New York Rangers in scoring during the regular season and put up thirteen points in the twenty-five playoff games. His qualifying offer was the same as his salary from last season, $1,150,000 million. He is also slated to go before a salary arbitrator on July 25. All three players can and will continue talks with management before the hearings begin. They tend to get ugly and can sever the relationship between team and player. The Arbitration hearings begin on July 20. Depending on the amount of the last contract the offer could be one hundred percent like in the case of

,

, and

.

is a different story since he made more money. His Qualifying Offer is one hundred and ten percent (110%) of his last contract. The Qualifying Offer is a one year contract that protects the team from offer sheets from other teams and ensures the player gets a fair value either by hearing or by ongoing negotiations.

The New York Rangers are in the red against the salary cap.

Mats Zuccarello said “he wants the New York Rangers to stay competitive” so he won’t “push” his salary to the maximum but “he finds it important he’s locked up to a long-term deal” Nettavisen

Of those three players it will be critical how much

gets on his next contract. It’s tough to speculate what his next contract may look like. He loves New York but when it comes to money every player is due their fair share.

Especially when the team he played for won the Eastern Conference last year

.

Mats Zuccarello

and

are imperative signings. They are young and they were both integral parts of the team that went three rounds in the East and on to the Stanley Cup Finals. Mats Zuccarello,

, and

all have arbitration rights so there shouldn’t be any kind of hold out like the one we all went through with

last summer.

Update

– New York Rangers sign

,

, and keep

.