Breaking news: A 7-year contract extension for Adam Fox

Chris Drury is no fool.  With every game played by the New York Rangers this season, Adam Fox’s price tag kept going up  Drury knew that if he kept this up, he would be so expensive to keep around, it would leave the Rangers’ cap situation in a shambles for years to come.   So, Drury signed Fox to a seven-year contract extension worth $66.5 million with an Average Annual Value (AAV) of $9.5 million.

It’s a pricey deal, but one that had to get done with Fox ready to become a Restricted Free Agent after this season.  We’ll get to the cap implications in a bit.

Fox himself had a message for Blueshirts fans.

Negotiations had been ongoing between Fox and the Rangers and he is the most recent of a wave of defensemen who signed big dollar, long-term contracts this season.  Charlie McAvoy of the Bruins and Morgan Rielly of the Maple Leafs were the latest to sign, in the last two weeks .   Fox’s deal is the second highest, just behind Zach Werenski of the Blue Jackets.

Here are the deals done since the end of last season:

1. Zach Werenski, Columbus:  6 years, $9.583 million
2. Adam Fox, Rangers:   7 years, $9.5 million
3. Seth Jones, Chicago:  8 years, $9.5 million
4. Charlie McAvoy Boston:  8 years,  $9.5 million
5. Darnell Nurse, Edmonton: 8 years, $9.25 million
6. Cale Makar, Colorado:  6 years:  $9 million
7. Dougie Hamilton, New Jersey: 7 years,  $9 million
8. Miro Heiskanen, Dallas:  8 years, $8.45 million
9. Quinn Hughes, Vancouver: 6 years, $7.85 million
10. Morgan Rielly, Toronto:  8 years, $7.5 million

This means Adam Fox is the fourth highest paid blueliner in the NHL behind Werenski and Drew Doughty ($11 million) and Erik Karlsson ($11.5 million) who both inked their deals pre-pandemic.

A key to the deal is its term.  It will end after the 2028-29 season when Fox will be 31 years old.  It sets him up for one more big contract that will take him through the end of his career.

Don’t worry, be happy

If you look at what other teams have paid their defensemen, the payout to the reigning Norris Trophy Winner is actually pretty reasonable. Would the Rangers rather have any of them on the blueline instead of Fox?  No, they wouldn’t.

It means that the cornerstone of the Rangers defense is set for the future with Fox, Trouba and Lindgren under contract and Miller and Lundkvist still under their Entry Level deals.  The good news is the team still has cost-controlled prospects like Zac Jones,  Braden Schneider and Matthew Roberton and Hunter Skinner in the pipeline.

How important is Adam Fox to the Rangers?  He’s a player who is the power play quarterback and on the first penalty killing unit.  He plays more minutes than any of his teammates in every game.   He has the uncanny ability to slow the game down and create time and space for his teammates. In the last two games alone, he made a spectacular pass to Alexis Lafrenière for a goal against Columbus and he started the play against Seattle that ended up with him scoring the game winning goal.

Every night he makes plays like those.   We are spoiled by the fact that we get to watch him play every game. After last night we pointed out that he has had a hand in over 40% of the Rangers’ goals this season,  a number higher than any other NHL blueliner.

The cap situation

To describe the Rangers’ cap situation as troubling would be an understatement.   The Fox contract means that the Rangers have 17 players signed for next season for a total of about $71 million (including buyouts).  With an $81.5 million salary cap, that means the Rangers will have about $10.6 million to extend Kaapo Kakko, Sammy Blais and Alexandar Georgiev, plus fill out the roster.

We’ll do a deep dive into the salary cap situation and look at the options for the Rangers in the coming days.

There is nothing wrong with this deal.  Fox is young.  The dollars are reasonable.  The term is long enough. Adam Fox wants to be here.  Congratulations Mr. Drury.  Good job.