Jesper Fast and J.T. Miller became the latest restricted free agents to re-up with the Rangers on Wednesday, which leaves only the biggest fish, center Derek Stepan, unsigned. Stepan, 25, has an arbitration hearing set for July 27 and could command somewhere around $6-7 million when the process is complete.
So in preparation, the cap-strapped Rangers concluded all other offseason business on Wednesday by re-signing Fast to a two-year, $1.9 million deal ($950,000 per year) and inking Miller to a one-year, $874,000 contract. They also brought back 2010 first-round pick and defenseman Dylan McIlrath, 23, on a likely last-chance, one-year contract for $600,000.
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Assuming an opening night roster of 22 players, then, the Fast and Miller contracts bring GM Jeff Gorton’s budget to around $64.1 million for 21 players, leaving approximately $7.3 million under the NHL’s $71.4 million salary cap as Stepan seeks a new deal.
The higher the annual salary for Stepan, the tighter a bind it puts the Rangers in. Stepan’s impending arbitration, for example, impacted the Blueshirts’ negotiations with Miller.
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Typically, the Rangers sign players coming off entry-level contracts to a “two-year bridge deal,” a modest-increase second NHL contract that bridges a player from his first deal to a potential big payday on his third. That’s what Fast, 23, signed. The 2010 sixth-round pick was one of Alain Vigneault’s most trustworthy workhorses last season.
Miller, 22, on the other hand, was able to accept his one-year qualifying offer and protect his summer 2016 arbitration rights, because his annual salary on a two-year contract would have been higher and that would have hamstrung the Rangers with Stepan even more.
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Miller, a 2011 first-rounder, is coming off the best season of his young career, scoring 10 goals with 23 points in 58 regular season games. He had one goal and eight points in 19 postseason matches.
He and Fast are part of a young, under-million core of forwards who will factor majorly into the Rangers’ success this season, including Kevin Hayes, Emerson Etem and potentially Oscar Lindberg.
Stepan, 25, is a young man, too, but he has experience, tenure, the stats, and a forum to state his case. So he’ll cost much, much more.
