Relax, everybody. The New York Rangers re-signed restricted free agent forward Vinni Lettieri to a one-year deal on Wednesday, but it won’t stop the team from getting their other business wrapped up.
In a week dominated by gloomy articles lamenting the cap trouble the New York Rangers have got themselves into, the front office has quietly gone about its business and doesn’t seem to be as fearful about the task ahead as the rest of us.
Although a depth signing, the return of Lettieri created a lot of buzz on Rangers Twitter with most fans wanting news of Pavel Buchnevich, Brendan Lemieux and Tony DeAngelo instead, while some Blueshirts were whipping themselves into a frenzy over the salary cap situation.
Now, before we delve into Lettieri’s role for 2019-20, let’s get one thing straight first; this contract will not affect the Rangers cap situation at all. Period. Let us explain why. Although the terms of the deal haven’t been disclosed, it is hard to think that the forward’s cap hit for 2019-20 will be more than his cap hit of $925,000 last year.
If the cap hit is less than $1.075 million, Lettieri is still waivers-exempt and can be assigned to the Hartford Wolf Pack in the AHL with no impact on the Rangers’ salary cap. He won’t count against the $81.5 million cap while he’s in Hartford and, due to the fact that he’s more than likely to start the year in the minors, the Blueshirts still have the flexibility to make other moves and go out and re-sign their remaining restricted free agents.
It is another smart move by General Manager Jeff Gorton who understands the importance of stockpiling depth and role players, while bolstering the talent pool in Hartford with the Wolf Pack currently undergoing a rebuild of their own. Lettieri’s new deal should be team-friendly and likely won’t cost too much against the cap should he get called up to the NHL at any point in 2019-20.
In terms of Lettieri the player, the 24-year-old has shown obvious flashes of talent although that has yet to translate to the NHL on a consistent basis. The versatile forward is a prolific points scorer in the AHL and, not yet playing at his peak, he still has time to prove that he’s capable of evolving into a regular bottom six role player in the NHL, maybe something bigger if he can really put it all together.
In 48 games with the Wolf Pack in 2018-19, Lettieri tallied 23 goals and 25 assists for 48 points, good enough for a point a game, in addition to 22 penalty minutes and a plus/minus rating of -10. Compare that to 27 games in the NHL where Lettieri posted one goal and two assists for three points with 14 penalty minutes and a plus/minus rating of -7.
The stats don’t lie and it is obvious that Lettieri needs to step up his production if he is going to stick in the majors. However, he does bring other qualities to the table in terms of his compete level, his physicality and the fact that he shoots whenever he gets the chance, which fits perfectly into head coach David Quinn’s shoot first philosophy.There are kinks and wrinkles in Lettieri’s game that need ironing out, that in itself is obvious, but he is a solid role player at this stage in his career and is a good option to call up to the NHL should the Rangers take a hit to their bottom six because of injuries at any stage of next year. As already mentioned, he will more than likely begin the 2019-20 season with the Hartford Wolf Pack and he’ll have a chance to really showcase his talents in the early stages of the year.
For the New York Rangers they’ve ticked off another box when it comes to adding depth after signing the likes of Phil Di Giuseppe, Greg McKegg and Danny O’Regan to short-term deals this offseason. Now the franchise’s attention will turn to bigger fish and the small matter of signing Pavel Buchnevich, Brendan Lemieux and Tony DeAngelo while working out what to do with Chris Kreider and their various buyout options. It’s going to be a busy few weeks.