Today the New York Rangers extended trade deadline acquisition Juuso Parssinen, and the two-year deal will carry a cap charge of $1.25 million. Now that he's under contract, he becomes a candidate to play a role in what was already a crowded bottom six, a bottom six that the Rangers are looking to improve ahead of next season.
The move is interesting for two reasons, the first of which being why the Blueshirts felt the need to extend a player who appeared in just 11 games, and the second being the monetary figure of $1.25 million which is nearly double the league minimum. I bring that up, because the way the deal is structured suggest the Rangers will have him in the NHL. If Parssinen were to be assigned to Hartford, a small portion of his salary would count against the Rangers' cap. The largest contract you can bury in the AHL to free up cap space is $1,150,000, and his deal is $100,000 more than that.
It sounds insignificant, but consider the fact that per PuckPedia the Edmonton Oilers ended the season with $100,000 in cap space, the Vegas Golden Knights ended with $71,000 in space, and the Minnesota Wild ended with just $36,000 in cap space, so you can see how even a meager $100,000 in "dead" space could present an issue.
Circling back to Parssinen the player, he averaged a meager 9:46 per game in his initial stint with the Rangers, and tallied a line of 2-3-5 in those 11 games. Per Evolving-Hockey, Parssinen also generated a slash line that included a 57.46 goals for percentage, a 36.57 Corsi for percentage, and an expected goals for percentage of just 35.6.
It was a pretty small sample of play, and one you don't want to draw too much from, but it is still puzzling that Chris Drury thinks he saw enough to sign him to a deal to keep him in the league, especially when the Rangers have better options available. Parssinen has 137 games on NHL experience under his belt, and the 6'3", 212-pound 24-year-old has tallied just 20 goals and 53 points in that span.
The Rangers' center now appears to be in competition for ice time with bottom-six options such as Sam Carrick, Jonny Brodzinski, Matt Rempe, and Adam Edstrom, and despite posting worse numbers, he's going to make more money than all of them. I say bottom-six, because technically there could be a spot on the third line, but more likely than not Parssinen is going to be deployed on the fourth line.
Carrick, $1 million per season, is coming off a season where he tallied 20 points in 80 games (6 goals and 14 assists). Brodzinski, $787,500 per year, tallied 19 points in 51 games (12 goals and 7 assists). Rempe, $820,000 per season, appeared in 42 games and posted a line of 3-5-8, and Edstrom, $846,667 per season, had a line of 5-4-9 in 51 games before getting shutdown due to an injury.
Both Rempe and Edstrom will need new contracts, and I'd expect both to come in around $1 million per year or less. Both are interesting players with size that play a heavy game, and there's value in keeping options like that around to evaluate because they are different and don't make that much money whereas Parssinen is a pretty generic hockey player that is on his third organization mostly because he's struggled to establish himself.
Now would also be a good time to mention Brett Berard and Brennan Othmann, and those are two players who are younger and have more overall upside. They had a tough enough time getting minutes last season, and it makes you wonder what their future in New York looks like. It is entirely possible they becomes trade pieces, but they both played well enough in 2024-25 to get more playing time next season. Then there's Gabe Perreault, the team's top prospect, and a forward who ideally should get top-six time that may likely end up on the third line. He may get some time in Hartford, and that wouldn't be a terrible thing, but ideally the Rangers will keep a spot open on the varsity squad if he shows he's up to the task.
It is possible that Parssinen is someone the Rangers think will thrive under new head coach Mike Sullivan, and there's things I am not seeing regarding his game. Even if that's the case, I think there's enough reason to give some of the players above more of a shot, or just simply acquire a player that is signifcantly better that they push someone higher up in the lineup down a rung.
While the players and their situations are different, this signing feels very similar to the Will Borgen extension. Borgen was extended shortly after joining the Rangers, and his results in that time frame weren't all that good. He also got a little more money and years than he should have, and the Rangers could have just allocated their money on a completely different player altogether. Borgen has more of a track record than Parssinen, but a lot of the other particulars feel similar.
The Rangers are expected to have a busy offseason, and this is just one of the initial moves being made by the front office. Even with that said, there was no real urgency to get this done now. The Rangers weren't at risk of losing Parssinen, nor were they in a situation where restricted free agent negotiations would get contentious. This move may end up not mattering at all, and the Blueshirts may not need that $100,000 if he's ultimately assigned to Hartford.
But I still can't help but wonder why this was done, and if it was going to happen no matter what... why have it finalized on May 2, 2025? If this were Will Cuylle, a bottom-six forward who had a breakout year to the point where he got playing time in the top-six, it would make a ton of sense given that he could become subject to an offer sheet. I don't expect getting an answer to these questions any time soon, but one would hope that there's a larger plan in place that allows the Rangers to maximize their roster within the confines of the salary cap.