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New York Rangers: Pavel Buchnevich signs two year deal

By Steve Paulus |
DETROIT, MI - MARCH 08: Pavel Buchnevich #89 of the New York Rangers follows the play against the Detroit Red Wings during an NHL game at Little Caesars Arena on March 8, 2019 in Detroit, Michigan. Detroit defeated New York 3-2 in a shootout. (Photo by Dave Reginek/NHLI via Getty Images)
DETROIT, MI - MARCH 08: Pavel Buchnevich #89 of the New York Rangers follows the play against the Detroit Red Wings during an NHL game at Little Caesars Arena on March 8, 2019 in Detroit, Michigan. Detroit defeated New York 3-2 in a shootout. (Photo by Dave Reginek/NHLI via Getty Images)
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DETROIT, MI – MARCH 08: Pavel Buchnevich #89 of the New York Rangers follows the play against the Detroit Red Wings during an NHL game at Little Caesars Arena on March 8, 2019 in Detroit, Michigan. Detroit defeated New York 3-2 in a shootout. (Photo by Dave Reginek/NHLI via Getty Images)
DETROIT, MI – MARCH 08: Pavel Buchnevich #89 of the New York Rangers follows the play against the Detroit Red Wings during an NHL game at Little Caesars Arena on March 8, 2019 in Detroit, Michigan. Detroit defeated New York 3-2 in a shootout. (Photo by Dave Reginek/NHLI via Getty Images) /

The New York Rangers avoided arbitration when the team announced that Pavel Buchnevich had signed a two-year, $6.5 million contract.

The final big contractual question of the summer was answered when the New York Rangers announced that arbitration eligible restricted free agent Pavel Buchnevich had inked a two-year bridge deal.  The contract carries an annual cap hit of $3.25 million.

While the terms of the deal are not official, the salary figure was widely reported.  As it is a bridge deal, the 24-year old Russian is set up for a big payday in two years if he improves on his career best goal scoring season.  He will still be a restricted free agent at the end of this  contract, though will remain arbitration eligible.

Buchnevich is coming off a season where he scored 21 goals and added 17 assists for 38 points. The 21 goals was a career high and he also set a career mark by averaging 0.59 points per game.  He suffered a broken thumb in November and missed 13 games.

After some tough love from coach David Quinn, Buchnevich finished strongly, with 12 goals and 20 points in his last 26 games.  With that finish, he displayed some of the skill the Rangers hoped for when they drafted him 75th overall in the third round of the 2013 NHL Entry Draft.

Now he set to compete with Kaapo Kakko for the right wing slot on the top line with Mika Zibanejad and Artemi Panarin.

Buchnevich was scheduled to go to an arbitration hearing on Monday.  By settling, the Rangers avoided going to arbitration with both Buchnevich and Jacob Trouba.   The last time the Blueshirts went the full process was in 2009 when forward Nikolai Zherdev took the team to arbitration and was awarded a $3.9 million salary. The Rangers chose to not accept the award and allowed Zherdev to leave the team as a free agent.

With the Buchnevich signing, the only unsigned players are RFA’s Anthony DeAngelo and Brendan Lemieux. Both are not arbitration eligible so they pretty much have to take whatever the Rangers offer.

While a reasonable deal, it doesn’t help the Rangers’ cap situation.

CHICAGO, IL – OCTOBER 25: Pavel Buchnevich #89 of the New York Rangers (middle) celebrates with teammates after scoring against the Chicago Blackhawks in the first period at the United Center on October 25, 2018 in Chicago, Illinois. (Photo by Chase Agnello-Dean/NHLI via Getty Images)
CHICAGO, IL – OCTOBER 25: Pavel Buchnevich #89 of the New York Rangers (middle) celebrates with teammates after scoring against the Chicago Blackhawks in the first period at the United Center on October 25, 2018 in Chicago, Illinois. (Photo by Chase Agnello-Dean/NHLI via Getty Images) /

The salary cap impact

The Rangers were already about $900k over the $81.5 million salary cap before the Buchnevich deal was announced.  Now, the team is $4.146 million over the cap with Lemieux and DeAngelo still needing contracts.

With the final arbitration settled, the timeframe is set for the team to perform a buyout.  They  have 48 hours to make a buyout official beginning on the third day after the Buchnevich deal was done.  That means that if the Rangers intend to buy out Kevin Shattenkirk, Brendan Smith or Marc Staal, it will need to happen on Monday or Tuesday.

You can be sure that Jeff Gorton will be working the phones to see if there is a deal to be made for one of the defensemen or potentially Chris Kreider, Vlad Namestnikov or Ryan Strome.

Even if the team buys out Staal, Shattenkirk or Smith, they will still need  to pare some salary from their payroll to get under the cap. If there is no buyout, then Gorton definitely has something up his sleeve and whatever it is will come down before training camp opens.

At any rate, it could be  busy over the next few days.

Related Story. Contract term and Chris Kreider. light

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