Re-signing DeAngelo won’t be cheap
Larry Brooks of the New York Post: It could cost the New York Rangers at least $6 million per season on a long-term deal for pending 24-year old restricted free agent defenseman Anthony DeAngelo.
Another option could be a bridge deal at around $5 million per season. Salary arbitration could be another option, but the sides would likely want to avoid that.
Trading DeAngelo for a right-handed defenseman or for a top-nine forward that has top-six potential is another option.
The Rangers will need to keep in mind that they have Jacob Trouba for six more seasons at $8 million per with a no-movement clause that kicks in on July, and that Adam Fox will need a big new contract when his entry-level deal expires.
DeAngelo could be on their 3rd pairing and making $5 to $6 million, which is something that won’t really work for the Rangers. Moving him to his off side could move him up in pairings.
Won’t be easy for the Rangers to fit in Fast, but they’ll circle back
Larry Brooks of the New York Post: It’s possible that New York Rangers pending free agent forward Jesper Fast won’t be back with the team next season.
The Rangers did hold some preliminary contract extension talks with Fast’s agents before the trade deadline back in February. The sides obviously didn’t reach an agreement.
With the salary cap possibly going to be less next season, the Rangers will have a cap squeeze. They will still likely see if they can work something out with Fast. With other teams feeling the cap crunch as well, there may not be a lot of money out there for Fast.
The 28-year old Fast made $1.95 million this past season.
Rangers weren’t close to trading Buchnevich
Larry Brooks of the New York Post: There had been some internal talks about possibly trading forward Pavel Buchnevich. It’s not known how serious those talks were.
The Rangers were never really close to actually trading him though.
Buchnevich has meshed well both on and off the ice with Mika Zibanejad and Chris Kreider.