The Rangers and Ryan Strome, hours before their scheduled arbitration hearing, reached an accord on a two-year deal. Strome submitted a $5.7 million figure while New York came in at $3.6 million, leaving a manageable gap, as I wrote the other day. The meeting point ended up just below the midpoint, as Strome will have a $4.5 mil AAV, which is just below the walkaway figure, if he did go to arbitration.

Two year deal
Year 1, $4 M
Year 2, $5 M https://t.co/rmByv52rWA

— Pierre LeBrun (@PierreVLeBrun) November 5, 2020

New York now has about $2.4 million in cap space, factoring in the bonus cushion of $3.95 mil, leaving plenty of room to re-sign Brendan Lemiuex, even if he goes to arbitration rather than reaching an agreement prior to the hearing. Giving Strome the second year affords the team the ability to expose him to Seattle in the expansion draft if they so desire. Strome gets a substantive raise above the $3.1 million and gets the bump in year 2, which would have been his first UFA season.

New York #Rangers cap update:

After signing forward Ryan Strome to a 2 year deal with an AAV of $4,500,000, we now show the Rangers with $6,379,367 in projected cap space.

Roster: 22 (13F-7D-2G)

Unsigned RFA's remaining (1):
F Brendan Lemieuxhttps://t.co/QZwIPWiV0y pic.twitter.com/vm1sIaBR5Q

— CapFriendly (@CapFriendly) November 5, 2020

Via @CapFriendly, contract comparables for Ryan Strome's two year extension. pic.twitter.com/eujh98Hj3L

— Shayna (@hayyyshayyy) November 5, 2020

In general, a fair deal. Slightly higher than I would have liked, but within the reasonable range. I would have preferred a $4 or $4.25 mil AAV, but New York now gets to see if Strome and Panarin can recreate their chemistry and if Strome was only a product of playing with Artemi. In addition, Filip Chytil gets to grow in the third line center role but could move up to the 2C, if he excels, with Strome sliding down. Also, the AAV, if Strome does play well, should allow him to be dealt before next season, if the team so desires. The two years on the deal works out well then for both sides, since Strome gets paid, the Rangers have flexibility if need be and a possible 2C for the near-term, providing them insurance if Chytil is not ready or doesn't develop into the role.

Strome can create offense but also likes to keep his goaltenders active as well. pic.twitter.com/4Dk1wKTgUM

— Evolving-Hockey (@EvolvingHockey) November 5, 2020

Ryan Strome, signed 2x$4.5M by NYR, is an offence-only centre whose playmaking talent mostly makes up for his awful defensive play. #NYR pic.twitter.com/zdM1baFmyt

— JFresh (@JFreshHockey) November 5, 2020

Overall, the Rangers have made few changes from the prior season. New York will enter 2020-21 without Jesper Fast and Marc Staal but with Alexis Lafreniere and Jack Johnson. The team seems to be banking on continued growth from the kids, including Kaapo Kakko and Chytil, while their stars play at the same level as the year prior. The full-time switch from Henrik Lundqvist to Igor Shesterkin and Alexandar Georgiev also might pay dividends, but the notion of being harder to play against along with a needed identify for the bottom-six, appears to not be in the cards as of now. Maybe they are playing the year out and then will make another big splash or two next off-season, but would you say the team as currently constituted is better than the one that ended the 2019-20 season?

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