One of the biggest decisions facing Chris Drury is what to do with Mika Zibanejad. He is set to become an Unrestricted Free Agent after next season and the New York Rangers can sign him to an extension once he is in the final year of his contract.
There are issues. He will be 29 years old when the new contract will take effect. He will certainly expect an increase over his current contract that carries an Annual Average Value (AAV) of $5.35 million. If the Rangers can make the dollars work, is it a risk to sign a player about to turn 30 for five years or more?
In 2018 the Rangers had the same concerns when it came to Ryan McDonagh and it meant a trade to the Tampa Bay Lightning. There were additional cap issues, but they could have found the money. It was more the need to rebuild that they chose to deal McDonagh and it’s his experiences after he left New York that relate to the decision the Rangers have to make about Mika Zibanejad.
If you have been watching the playoffs, any Ranger fan has to smile when watching Ryan McDonagh. He is still the player he was in New York and his excellent play should make all of us even more appreciative of what he did for the Rangers. And in watching him play, there’s a lesson to be learned as the Rangers have a decision to make about Zibanejad.
The McDonagh situation
In 2017-18, McDonagh was in the fifth year of a six-year contract he signed with the Rangers in 2013. The deal had an AAV of $4.7 million, a bargain considering his role with the Blueshirts as their top defenseman and team captain.
The worry was that when that contract expired he would be 30 years old and looking for a long term deal for more money. Concerned about the salary cap and his age, the Rangers made him the centerpiece of their rebuilding strategy and traded him along with J.T. Miller at the deadline to Tampa for Brett Howden, Libor Hajek, Vlad Namestnikov and first and second round draft picks.
Okay, we are not here to judge the merits of the deal or question why they did it. With a full rebuild the goal, trading McDonagh at the time made sense. Would the Rangers be a better team today with a 32-year-old McDonagh patrolling the blue line? Of course, but what’s done is done.
McDonagh has now played three full seasons in Tampa, winning one Stanley Cup and contending for another this season. In 2018, a full year before his contract was set to expire the Lightning gave him a seven year extension worth an AAV of $6.75 million. It means he will be with them through the 2025-26 season when he will be 36 years old.
Two years into his new deal he is showing no signs of slowing down. He is still playing well over 20 minutes per game and is a vital piece of the Tampa defense just behind Victor Hedman in terms of importance to the team. He is an alternate captain and a team leader as he was in New York. He is the third oldest player on the team, but the way he is playing, there is no reason to expect that he won’t be an effective NHL player for the next three years (or longer). In other words, the Lightning are getting a huge return on their investment despite the fact his play may deteriorate as he gets older. In fact, with one Stanley Cup and their status as favorites for a second this season, extending McDonagh was a tremendous move.
The reasons that the Lightning made that move relates directly to Mika Zibanejad and the Rangers.