Rangers Sign More Cheques

Tuesday and Wednesday has brought new 1-year contracts to Brendan Shanahan and Henrik Lundqvist, respectively. Shanahan will have an incentive-laden year with a base salary of $2.5 million, which could go up over $4 million with bonuses. Lundqvist signed a deal worth $4.25 million, which should leave him as an Unrestricted Free Agent after the season is done. These numbers are quite curious, as the Rangers pretty much filled up the bulk of their cap space with these two signings and they still have Sean Avery and Marcel Hossa left to sign their names to the dotted line.

Shanahan's 29 goals was quite impressive last season and he should have the ability to do it again. He did finish in 86th in pool rankings, but also missed 15 games due to injury. He averaged just under a point-per-game and should be able to do it once again, especially with a new centreman like Scott Gomez or Chris Drury.

Lundqvist won 37 games and finished 27th in the rankings, 8th among goaltenders. The new signings of Gomez and Drury should ensure a few more wins, not to mention, Lundqvist is now regarded as one of the premier goaltenders in the league, so his stock will continue to rise. The prospect of Unrestricted Free Agency should also play a part for the Swede, as the Europeans have been known to play exceptionally well in contract years.

Martin Straka	Scott Gomez	Jaromir Jagr
Brendan Shanahan	Chris Drury	Matt Cullen
Petr Prucha	Nigel Dawes	Ryan Callahan
Ryan Hollweg	Blair Betts	Colton Orr

Michael Roszival	Paul Mara
Marek Malik	Fedor Tyutin
Thomas Pock	Dan Girardi

Henrik Lundqvist

Steve Valiquette

This line-up shown is fully signed and hovering around the $50 million mark right now. You would have to believe that both Avery and Hossa will be due for at least a million each, so there is probably going to have to be a move or two to free up that sort of money or they'll be moved for some decent draft picks.

I may suspect (as my own speculation) that the Rangers may shop Martin Straka, Matt Cullen or Paul Mara around since they're all in the $3 million range, so they can free up some money. Avery was a big part of the Rangers late season success and will probably be coveted by Ranger management before the season starts.


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