Strome qualified & the Rangers pick a goalie, Lundqvist to sign

Lots of news to report about the New York Rangers on a busy draft day

It looks like Jeff Gorton and the New York Rangers couldn’t move Ryan Strome during the draft so, according to Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet and Larry Brooks of the New York Post, they have submitted a qualifying offer to the the veteran center.

By qualifying Strome before the 5pm deadline, they keep his rights and will negotiate with him for a new contract.  He can file for arbitration if the two sides cannot come to an agreement and if the Rangers feel the arbitration award is too high (over $4.5 million), they can walk away and he becomes a free agent.

Arbitration hearings won’t begin until October 20, long after free agent frenzy begins on Friday, October 9.  If the Rangers can sign or trade for a second line center they could choose to walk away from Strome. The issue for New York would be if they sign a center and then Strome asks for less than $4.5 million in arbitration.  At that price they have to keep him and that could be a salary cap issue.

Rangers select a goalie

With their fourth round pick, #103 overall, the Rangers selected Kamloops Blazers netminder, Dylan Garand.

Garand was one of the best goalies in the WHL last season, though he is smaller at 6’1″, 176 pounds.  He turned 18 in June and according to Eliteprospects.com “He moves laterally with both speed and precision, not overshooting his marks often and recovering well when he happens to misread a shot or the play breaks down in front of him. When there’s a scramble in front of the net, he’s confident enough in himself that he doesn’t try to fall on the puck, either; he stays on his knees and gets into position.”

He had a breakthrough season last year for Kamloops, with a 28-10-3 record, a 2.21 Goals Against Average (GAA) and a .921 Save Percentage( Sv%).  That save percentage set a Kamloops franchise record and his wins total, GAA and Sv% were third in the WHL.

Garand now joins Olof Lindbom in the goaltending pipeline along with Adam Huska and Tyler Wall who are signed and set to play in Hartford.

Report: Lundqvist to sign with Washington on Friday

Greg Wyshynski of Yahoo! Sports reported that the King is set to sign a one year deal with Washington when the free agency window opens on Friday.

There was a lot of speculation that Lundqvist would end up in Washington or Colorado and now it appears he will be just down I-95, mentoring Russian goalie Ilya Samsonov.  His return to the Garden will be something special, if fans are going to be allowed into the building.