What are the New York Rangers’ plans with Ryan Strome

What’s the deal with Ryan Strome and the New York Rangers?

The New York Rangers have, as of this writing, not extended a qualifying offer to restricted free agent (RFA) Ryan Strome. Without a qualifying offer, Strome will become an unrestricted free agent (UFA) as of 5pm on Wednesday, October 7. The Rangers may feel that it is too financially risky to maintain their contractual control over the center.

The minimum offer to Strome, who is arbitration eligible, would require to be equal to his last contract of $3.1 million average annual value (AAV). The Rangers may be concerned that Strome would choose to file for arbitration. While this would extend the negotiation time between team and player, it could also allow an arbitrator to determine the value of the next contract.

The Rangers could choose to walk away from any ruling that exceeds $4,538,958, allowing Strome to become a UFA. The Rangers have previously done this with Nikolai Zherdev in 2009 after he was awarded $3.9 million in arbitration. However, if a ruling comes back below this threshold, the Rangers would be forced to retain him and be unable to trade him for a year.

By not extending an qualifying offer the Rangers have also reduced any trade market for the second line center. Why would any NHL general manager surrender assets to trade for a player that will potentially be available as a UFA in less than a week? Allowing Strome to get to UFA status, without gaining any assets in return would be a prime example of poor asset management. That is, unless it is all part of some Rangers master plan.

The New York Rangers may already have the cap space that would have been used to retain Strome earmarked elsewhere. Could the Rangers be making a play for UFA left defenseman Torey Krug. It is expected that he is looking for a contract better than that of the $6.5 million for six years offered by the Boston Bruins. If true, the Rangers would need to reshuffle their cap expenditures.

This type of cap hit would put the Rangers in a position where they would have to also consider moving Tony DeAngelo. The two defenders are similar in that both are power play quarterbacks who rarely play on the penalty kill. Switching one for the other would positionally provide the Rangers a solid top four defense without having to sacrifice DeAngelo’s offense.

Krug had exceeded the 50 point plateau for three straight seasons before recording 49 points in 61 games during the shortened 2019-20 season. He is a proven playoff performer, but at 29 years old he may be too old for the Rangers to consider a viable option. Though, by acquiring the UFA defenseman, the Rangers would open the door for other transactions to improve the team in other areas.

The next few days will be interesting in Rangerstown.