Namestnikov Re-Signs in New York

The retooling New York Rangers re-signed one of their latest acquisitions, forward Vladislav Namestnikov, who they picked up in the trade that sent Ryan McDonagh out of town.  Namestnikov and the Rangers agreed upon a 2-year, $8 million deal, putting him into the upper echelon of signed forwards on the team.

The 25-year old Russian didn't exactly make too much of an impact, upon his arrival in New York, but he has shown some promise in seasons past, which led them to believe that he will be worth the extension.  In 19 games with the Rangers, Namestnikov only posted 2 goals and 4 points, but between Tampa and New York, he totaled 22 goals and 48 points in 81 games.  That was good enough for 108th among all forwards, giving the Rangers some immediate scoring depth in their rebuild.

Besides the old hat in goal, the Rangers are beginning to look like a fairly young team, heading into the better part of the summer.  They have quite a bit of speed up front and a couple of good puck movers on the blueline, so they could be fun to watch next season.  Inexperience might be their overall downfall, if they don't sign some more veteran talent.

Forwards	Cap	Defense	Cap	Goalies	Cap
Mika Zibanejad	5.350	Kevin Shattenkirk	6.650	Henrik Lundqvist	8.500
Chris Kreider	4.625	Marc Staal	5.700	Marek Mazanec	0.650
Mats Zuccarello	4.500	Brendan Smith	4.350
Vladislav Namestnikov	4.000	Neal Pionk	0.925
Matt Beleskey	1.900	Tony DeAngelo	0.863
Jesper Fast	1.850	Fredrik Claesson	0.700
Lias Andersson	0.925	Steven Kampfer	0.650
Pavel Buchnevich	0.925
Filip Chytil	0.925
Vinni Lettieri	0.925
Brett Howden	0.894
Robin Kovacs	0.803
Ryan Gropp	0.803
Peter Holland	0.675

The retooling of the team can operate quite quickly, when you're cap costs are so low.  For a team that used to be nestled right up to the ceiling most years, it's really something to see them with $17.8 million in cap space after the first day of free agency.  The Rangers will still be shopping around, you'd have to believe, so we'll prepare to see more of them between now and camp.