The Rangers have announced that Pavel Buchnevich has agreed to a new contract.
The deal is for two-years and has a cap hit of $3.25 million, according to Larry Brooks.
He will be a restricted free agent when this contract expires.
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Buchnevich was slated to have an arbitration hearing this Monday.
The Rangers will have a 48-hour buyout window that begins on Monday and ends at Wednesday at 5PM.
This season, Buchnevich had 21 goals and 17 assists for the Rangers in 64 games.
- October: 10 games, 3 goals, 2 assists, 12 shots, 14:39 per game
- November: 4 games, 2 goals, 2 assists, 7 shots, 15:31 per game
- December: 8 games, 1 goal, 1 assist, 5 shots, 15:46 per game
- January: 11 games, 3 goals, 2 assists, 18 shots, 11:50 per game
- February: 13 games, 3 goals, 6 assists, 32 shots, 15:34 per game
- March: 15 games, 8 goals, 4 assists, 39 shots, 16:35 per game
- April: 3 games, 1 goal, 6 shots, 18:28 per game
Buchnevich was scratched on 10/16, 10/30, 11/1 and 1/29, missed 13 games with a thumb injury in November and December and was held out of the Rangers game on 4/1 as a precaution.
Following his scratch on 1/29, Buchnevich had 12 goals and 11 assists in 32 games while putting 80 shots on goal in 16:12 per game.
Following the season, Buchnevich said that he is confident that he is a “good hockey player” and that he and David Quinn were both happy with he performed down the stretch.
Quinn said of Buchnevich near the end of the season:
3/24: “I think it’s the natural progression of a young player, there are peaks and valleys and I have talked about this a lot, guys just don’t come here and become great players over night. There is adversity that these players have to face to get to the next level and to have success at this level you need to do things that you probably haven’t had to do before and it’s a whole new level and learning experience and you compound the fact that he comes over here from Russia and English is his second language and there is a lot of hurdles for everybody. He wants to be great and sometimes there are battles with him but at the end of the day he has done a heck of a job over the last month.”
3/27: “he has certainly been much more consistent the last 5-6 weeks, he has produced offensively and there are a variety of reasons for it. I think guys grow at different times and sometimes you have to go through some ups and downs in your career before you learn. He’s playing much more honest hockey, getting to the areas he needs to get to to score goals, he’s not forcing plays offensively, he’s playing a more complete game and when you do that you are in better situations offensively and when you do that you can influence a game a lot more with how you are playing.”
4/6: “we’ve been on him about shooting pucks and he has shot more and his overall game has improved, that comes with maturity and as you get older you get wiser and make better decisions and understand the game a little better, I think that is what happened with Pavel, he’s understanding the full scope of hockey and becoming a more well-rounded player and he is getting rewarded statistically.”
Adam Rotter: It’s a fair deal for both sides and allows the Rangers to get a couple of more years to see if the Buchnevich we saw at the end of last year is going to be the Buchnevich we see moving forward. While there is, rightfully, so much focus on Kaapo Kakko and Vitali Kravtsov and the Chytil, Howden, Andersson trio, Buchnevich is just 24 and could be one of the bridges from the old Rangers to the new Rangers. He’s going to be in the Rangers top-six, either with Mika Zibanejad and Artemi Panarin or with Filip Chytil/Ryan Strome.