Rangers bench top prospect Drew Fortescue to avoid paying $80,000 bonus

The New York Rangers have just three games left in their regular season—two after tonight's matchup in Dallas—and their decision to scratch Drew Fortescue carries major consequences. In a stretch of the schedule where there is quite literally nothing to play for, Fortescue is being denied the opportunity to earn a significant performance bonus.

By making the rookie a healthy scratch tonight, the Rangers have ensured that Fortescue can, at most, appear in nine games. That leaves him exactly one game shy of the 10-game milestone required to trigger an $80,000 bonus negotiated into his entry-level contract.

A pattern of penny-pinching

Fortescue has appeared in seven games thus far, skating just under 103 minutes at 5v5. According to Evolving-Hockey, he currently holds a 71.3 GF%, a 47.69 CF%, and a 44.27 xGF%. While those underlying numbers suggest the 21 year old still has plenty of seasoning ahead of him in Hartford, they aren't a justification for a benching. In a meaningless game during a retool, there is no hockey reason to keep Fortescue out of the lineup.

The decision to pinch pennies feels particularly pathetic for a franchise valued at $3.8 billion, the second-richest in the NHL. That Fortescue will likely miss his bonus by a single game is no coincidence, and unfortunately, it’s not the first time this organization has pulled this trick.

The Will Cuylle precedent

During the 2023-24 season, Will Cuylle was the feel-good story of training camp, making the roster and appearing in every single game until March 23 against Florida. He was scratched for that lone contest, played every other game the rest of the way, and finished his rookie campaign with 81 games played.

Cuylle’s contract included a performance bonus worth $82,500 if he appeared in all 82 games. The decision to scratch him for that solitary night was transparently intentional. At the time, the Rangers ended the year with a $512,500 cap overage, and the front office clearly didn't want to tack on another $82.5k to the bill.

No excuse for the "accounting trick"

While the move with Cuylle was shrewd, the current situation with Fortescue is even harder to defend. The Rangers are projected to end this season with over $2.2 million in cap space. Looking ahead to 2026-27, they have a roster size of 20 skaters with a massive $26.9 million available to spend.

There is absolutely no cap related reason to pull an accounting stunt here. By denying a top prospect a negotiated bonus to sign his ELC in a lost season, the Rangers aren't just saving a few dollars, they are opening themselves up to legitimate scrutiny regarding how they treat the very youth movement Letter 2.0 is supposed to be built upon.

Mollie has since added a follow up tweet, and the update doesn't make this anymore defensible for the Rangers. Fortescue is not the type of high end prospect that was going to be offersheeted, let alone considering how rare those are. Now, not only is Fortescue out $80,000, but if he somehow puts together some solid play in the years ahead, he will have no power in negotiating with Rangers, and will have to accept whatever their offer ends up being. Overall, just feels like a weird situation that could have been avoided, and if this were the plan all along, just don't include this type of bonus in the contract.