Rangers Sign Two Over Two Days

The New York Rangers were able to avoid arbitration with their two of their biggest restricted free agents, as forward Mats Zuccarello signed on Tuesday to a new 1-year deal, worth $3.5 million and on Wednesday morning, forward Chris Kreider signed a 2-year deal, worth $4.95 million, a $2.475 million cap hit each season.

Both players were big parts of the Rangers run to the Stanley Cup Finals in the Spring and each narrowly signed new deals before they had to go through the arbitration process.

Zuccarello had a great 2014 season in the Big Apple, playing in 77 games, scoring 19 goals and 59 points with the club, ranking 67th overall in pool scoring and 50th among forwards.

In a 24-team hockey pool draft, he would be sitting in the 3rd round area of scoring, but the unfamiliarity of his name to the overall scope of most hockey pools may see his stock drop a little.  I don't necessarily think it's unfair, but I think he could surprise a few people again in 2015, as his overall game is straight-forward, without a great deal of flash and dash, which can go away from time to time.

The 26-year old Norwegian also played in the Sochi Olympics for his home country, played in three games and was unable to register a point in round robin play.

Kreider also had a pretty good season, as the 23-year old played in 66 games for the Rangers in 2014, scoring 17 goals and 37 points.  Those numbers have him more in the fringe of forwards scoring, as he finished 211th overall and 148th among all forwards.

The playoff run should boost some of the marginal hockey pool players for the Rangers and Kreider may fall into that category, but I think that will play well for someone in the hockey pool draft, as his talent is certainly on the upswing and his game can only get better amongst a reasonable playoff team like the Rangers.

The Rangers still have quite a bit of work to do on their roster and with these two contracts now on the books, the purse strings just got a little tighter for free agents like Derick Brassard and John Moore, their last two big restricted free agents.

On my projected roster for the Rangers, they only have 17 players listed on it, leaving about six spots left to fill, roughly four forwards and a couple defensemen.  The Rangers are now running with only $9.9 million in cap space, which only works out to $1.6 million per new deal left to go to fill up the roster.  The team does have a number of prospects that can come up and fill those voids for cheap, which is a definite option, but you know they are still working their way through the free agent market for one more big ticket item.