Should the New York Rangers keep Ryan Strome?

Is Ryan Strome a crucial piece of the future for the New York Rangers or trade bait after his best season?  He’s due a big raise so that decision is coming soon

Mention Ryan Strome and you’ll get an argument from many fans. He’s had two good years with the New York Rangers and was an important piece of the team. He is an arbitration eligible restricted free agent after this season and the team will have to decide if they can sign him to an extension or try to trade him when his value is highest.

As always, the salary cap is an issue here.  Although early estimates had the cap increasing from $84 million to $88 million that may not be so.  With the season shut down and teams facing a revenue crisis, the possibility is that the cap may not go up and will remain  at $81.5 million.  That spells trouble for many NHL teams including the Rangers.

Strome is currently in the last year of a two-year contract he signed with the Edmonton Oilers for an annual average value (AAV) of $3.1 million.  That represented a slight increase over the $2.5 million AAV  contract he signed with the Islanders in 2016.  He turns 27 this summer and he will be an unrestricted free agent at the end of  his next contract.

All of these factors make for an interesting strategy fro the Blueshirts when it comes to Strome this summer.

His season

Strome played in all 70 games this season, scoring 18 goals and adding 41 assists for 59 points.  He was definitely going  to surpass his career high of 19 goals and he exceeded his best season of 33 assists by far.  His 59 points were nine better than his best season of 50 points (2014-15)  in 11 fewer games.

He clearly benefited from playing on the same line as Artemi Panarin, but it’s important to remember that he scored 18 goals in only 63 games for the Rangers in his first season.  It’s his assist total that increased from 15 to 41 and that can be attributed to his partnership with the Breadman.  His goal total a year ago can be attributed to an unearthly shooting percentage of 22.5%.  This season his success rate was 11.7%, still above the league average.

Strome and Panarin skated 744 minutes at even strength together.  As a pair their Corsi For was 50.75% meaning they had a slight edge in shot attempts over the opposition.  Without Panarin, Strome’s Corsi dropped to 43.68% in 264 minutes.  Without Strome, Panarin’s possession stats were slightly better at 50.92% in 415 minutes.  From advanced statistics, there is no doubt that while Strome and Panarin were an excellent duo, it was Panarin who drove possession.

In 2018-19 Strome had his greatest success when teamed with Chris Kreider or Vlad Namestnikov. but didn’t have the possession stats he had with Panarin.