Another longtime Ranger gone, Jesper Fast to Carolina

The New York Rangers lost an important player when Jesper Fast signed a three year deal with the Hurricanes

It was always a question of whether the New York Rangers would be able to afford Jesper Fast.  Apparently, they weren’t willing to fork over a $150k a year increase or give him a three year contract and the free agent went elsewhere.

The popular and versatile forward will now be playing for a Metropolitan Division rival, the Carolina Hurricanes.  Fast actually took a $750k pay cut in the first year as his salary in the first year is $1 million.  It jumps to $2 million in year two and $3 million in year three for an Average Annual Value (AAV) of $2 million.  The deal doesn’t include No Movement or No Trade Clauses so he can be exposed in the Seattle expansion draft next summer.

The belief that he would be asking for more than the Rangers were willing to pay and they would be forced to protect him in the expansion draft were reasons why  it was believed that he would not be re-signed.   The fact that he signed for a nominal increase is an indication that he was never in the Rangers’ plans for the future.

Fast turns 29 in December and has been a Ranger since the 2013-14 season when he appeared in 11 games. He played three games in the playoffs that season and that means that only Chris Kreider is left from the Rangers team that went to the Stanley Cup Finals.

It means that in just over a week, the Rangers have traded, bought out or surrendered to free agency, three players who saw action in 2,201 regular season and 240 playoffs games for the Blueshirts.  They have also lost two of the four rotating captains from last season in Marc Staal and Fast, leaving Mika Zibanejad and Chris Kreider still with the team.

“Quickie’s” final stat line is 422 games, 55 goals, 92 assists, 147 points, 278 blocked shots and 125  hits.  He was the winner of the Players’ Player Award for the last five years, an award give to the player “who best exemplifies what it means to be a team player” as determined by his teammates.  No doubt about it, Jesper Fast was a popular teammate.

When Fast went down with what might have been a concussion in the first minutes of the first game of the Stanley Cup Qualifier, it was a harbinger of things to come.   He missed the rest of the series and his forecheck and effort was sorely missed.  The question is how that will translate for  the Rangers next season.

Fast will go down as one of the better late round draft picks for the Rangers.  He was the 157th overall pick in the sixth round of the 2010 NHL Entry Draft. Only 25 of the 208 players selected that year have played more NHL games than Fast

He was never a prolific scorer with a career high of 13 in 2017-18, but due to his diligent defense he often found himself playing on the top six.  Alain Vigneault used him that way with Zibanejad and Kreider, and this season, it was David Quinn who found him a home on the right wing with Artemi Panarin and Ryan Strome.

Interestingly enough, Fast was one of the players who made it hard to play against the Rangers and now he is gone.  Ostensibly, his place on the second line will be taken by Kaapo Kakko or Vitali Kravtsov.  The question remains how the Rangers will replace his defense-first presence in the lineup.  Letting him go for what appears to be a reasonable contract has to mean that the Rangers have some irons in the fire.  We shall see.