Should the New York Rangers keep Ryan Strome?

How does he compare?

If the Ryan Strome we saw this season is what we can expect in the future, how does he compare to other centers in the NHL?  His 59 points place him 21st in the league in the company of Mathew Barzal, John Tavares, Patrice Bergeron and Sean Couturier.

His 18 goals was 38th best in the league, tied with Jonathan Toews, Nick Bonino, Christian Dvorak and Pierre-Luc Dubois.  It was one less than Evgeny Kuznetsov and Nazem Kadri.

His 41 assists were good for 12th overall tied with Barzal and Anze Kopitar, one behind Jack Eichel, Toews, Aleksander Barkov and Nicklas Backstrom.  Of those 41 assists, 27 were primary assists, good for sixth place overall. The only players with more were Leon Draisaitl, Connor McDavid, Nathan MacKinnon, Barzal and Mark Scheifele.

Pretty heady company.

If there is one area that needs work, it is in the faceoff circle.  Strome won 47.5% of his draws, barely making it into the top 100 centers in the league.  He did win 54% of his offensive zone draws, but won only 44% of the draws he took in the defensive zone.   Deciding whether to keep Strome would be a much easier decision if he was better at the dots.

How much is he worth?

This is the key question.  Considering his season, Strome was vastly underpaid.  He was one of 12 centers in the NHL who scored between 55 and 65 points. Of the 12, the only one who made less than Strome was Barzal who is still on his Entry Level Contract.  The highest paid center with comparable stats was John Tavares at an AAV of $11 million.

Toews and Kopitar were both also over $10 million, Ryan O’Reilly was paid $7.5 million and five centers made between $5 and $7 million.The center closest to Strome in terms of AAV was Sean Couturier of the Flyers at $4.3 million.

Perhaps the best comparison is Ryan Nugent-Hopkins who is the same age as Strome and is making $6 million a year.  Granted, Nugent-Hopkins has been better than Strome statistically throughout his nine year career, but he has been making that salary since 2014-15 when the Oilers gave him a seven-year, $42 million deal.

A more recent deal to compare is the contract 28-year old Brayden Schenn signed with the St. Louis Blues. In October, they gave him an eight-year, $52 million deal that will keep in a Blues uniform until he is 36-years old  at an AAV of $6.5 million.

The best comparison could be Barzal who is coming off his Entry Level Contract and is also an arbitration-eligible restricted free agent.  While Barzal is four years younger than Strome, he has had three full seasons in the NHL and he had a season much like Strome last season.  You can be sure that Strome’s camp will be watching the Barzal negotiations to see how much the Islander gets.