The New York Rangers are going to have a busy summer. With a number of moves left to be made with players in need of a new contract, and then wherever they end of in the NHL Draft lottery in two weeks from now, it is going to be a busy few months here.
One of the things to pay attention to is going to be what the salary cap will look like this summer. The Rangers, as well as the rest of the National Hockey League, are all getting a significant amount of extra funds for their financial ceiling. Designated now at $104 million, the Blueshirts are going to have $26,965,834 to spend this summer.
The single season increase is $8.5 million league wide, and the first of a series of increases that will take the league to a new financial stratsophere that is already in effect in other major professional sports leagues.
With that said, there are some members of last season's team that need to be either pushed aside, or re-signed. If this is truly a retool, that means that Rangers President and General Manager Chris Drury is going to be active in free agency.
Let's go over it.
Pending Free Agents
Up front the Rangers have Jonny Brodzinski and Conor Sheary as unrestricted free agents. Both are veterans that should be a part of the group that is ultimately let go, and moved on from. The Rangers have a group of young players who need an opportunity, and both Brodzinski and Sheary are no longer a great fit for what the organization is trying to accomplish.
On the defensive side, Braden Schneider and Vincent Iorio are both designated to be restricted free agents with Schneider as someone who could likely be re-signed.
On Schneider, he turns 25 in September and because he's also played five seasons, that means he is quickly approaching UFA status. That means, barring a long-term deal, the likeliest outcome is a one to two year deal which would take him to free agency. The 2025-26 season featured him as a top-pair defenseman, covering for Adam Fox when he went down with injury, and it didn't go all that well. One season is not going to award him a long-term, high-value deal, and the Rangers hold the leverage in negotiations.
Finally, if the Rangers believe that goaltender Dylan Garand is the backup of the future for Igor Shesterkin, he will also need a new deal following the expiration of his contract. He made $775,000 last year, and at this point anything around $1 million a year seems fair.
Free agency
The Rangers need to take a different approach than they did with the last rebuild and retool that saw Artemi Panarin as the final piece to getting back to the contenders bracket. There are a lot of players in the free agency pool this summer, and after signing back Schneider and Garand to bridge-like deals that could exceed an AAV of $5 million, that leaves our remaining cap space in the range of $21 million.
This franchise needs a nice shot in the arm of adrenaline, and to get that, they need to fill out this forward group with some established talent in the $5-6 million AAV range. Ideally they would be smart to grab two of those, await for the rest of their prospect pool to blossom, and create the opportunity for this team to be back in prime time before you know it. There may be fans who want them to go after a flashy name like Alex Tuch, but he doesn't quite fit the existing window.
Some possible free agent targets in that range are Eeli Tolvanen from Seattle and Mario Ferraro from San Jose. Tolvanen is 27 years old and a former first round pick who hasn't quite put it all together. He's got a line of 92-98-190 in 423 games, and would represent a solid floor and high potential upside for the middle six. Ferraro will be 28 next season and has spent his entire career with San Jose. He has a career line of 24-90-114, and could be an interesting name to consider.
That would be one forward and a defenseman to at least keep the Rangers afloat for 2026-27, and able to get another year closer to getting back to the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
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