New York’s success has been based on their talent and star power, but they’ve also had to be pretty savvy with the moves they have made. New York has the power to attract most if not all free agents and get players to waive their no-trade clauses that otherwise might not. This is both a blessing and a curse as it can encourage general managers to spend when they do not need to.
However, that does not mean that the Rangers are without their fair share of fantastic value deals. New York boasts a lot of fantastic players that are signed for significantly less than their market rate which is what allows the team to indulge itself in its free agent spending and on the big-name players that become available in the trade market. It’s the high-value deals that are required for a team to have success in this league.
For the purposes of evaluating accurately, I’m going to directly ignore the players that are signed to their entry-level contracts because there is a cap on those deals for new players coming into the league. It’s ridiculous to say that anyone on an entry-level deal isn’t worth it because that contract can be sent to Hartford and completely forgotten about at the end of the day should things go wrong.
So, when you think about the best deals on the New York Rangers, there should be a couple of players that spring to mind. It might be different from the players that I’m going to talk about here, but that isn’t definitive, so if you disagree, tell me who you think should be on this list in the comments below, but make sure to justify it. As long as you have a reason to say it, there’s no wrong answer to this.