New York Rangers roundup: Nemeth coming, others leaving

With free agent frenzy one day away, the New York Rangers have been making some moves.  They will be parting ways with some roster players and a free agent signing is imminent.

Qualifying offers made

Monday was the day that the Rangers had to make qualifying offers to Restricted Free Agents (RFA’s).    Teams need to make qualifying offers in order to retain negotiating rights with a player.  If they don’t make an offer, it means the players becomes an Unrestricted Free Agent (UFA) on Wednesday.   The qualifying offer is precisely that, an offer, and may not be what contractual agreement the two sides come to.

The three major league roster players who were qualified were Igor Shesterkin, Filip Chytil and Libor Hajek.  There was never any doubt that they would get their offers.   Of the three, only Shesterkin is eligible for salary arbitration, meaning if the two sides cannot come to a contractual agreement by August 1, they will go to arbitration.   As for Chytil and Hajek, they have little leverage with no arbitration rights and will be forced to take whatever final offer the team makes.

The prospects who were qualified were Tim Gettinger, Adam Huska and Ty Ronning.  The team did not make offers to Brandon Crawley, Gabriel Fontaine, Patrick Newell and Yegor Rykov.  Those four will be UFA’s on Wednesday, but they still could sign with the Rangers.

Crawley and Fontaine were late round draft picks who never got out of Hartford. Newell was an undrafted free agent signed out of St. Cloud State.  All three played the last few seasons with the Wolf Pack and spent some time on the taxi squad.

The most interesting of the four is Yegor Rykov who was acquired in the 2018 trade of Michael Grabner to the New Jersey Devils.  He played as a third pair defenseman this season for CSKA in the KHL,.  CSKA lost in the Gagarin Cup Final this season to Avangard.

Rykov came to North America for the 2019-20 season, but suffered an injury that sidelined him for much of the season.  He was able to join Hartford for 27 games scoring two goals and 11 points.  He was loaned to CSKA for this season and played 49 games, averaging over 15 minutes playing time per game.

With the surplus of prospects in the Rangers’ defense pipeline, it looks like any chance of Rykov making it to the Rangers is over.  He is 24 years old and will likely continue his hockey career in Russia.

This means we can grade that trade deadline deal that sent Grabner to New Jersey for Rykov and a 2018 second round draft pick. The Rangers traded that pick to Ottawa along with the 26th overall first round pick in order to move up in the draft to the 22nd position where they drafted K’Andre Miller. Despite Rykov not panning out, that trade has to go into the win column as Miller has made it as a top four blueliner for the Rangers.

One reason that teams make or don’t make qualifying offers is to manage their roster. NHL teams are allowed to have 50 players under contract.  Currently the team has 36 players under contract, but if they sign all six of the RFA’s they qualified it takes them up to 42.  That means that they have eight slots available for free agents or to sign draft picks in the near future. They need to have space for flexibility.

There is a report that they are on the verge of signing a 37th player when free agency opens.