Elliotte Friedman was asked about the Rangers on The Jeff Marek Show and said:
On Filip Chytil’s next contract and the Dylan Cozens’ 7-year, $7 million per season extension“When I saw the Dylan Cozens extension I was like, ‘well, that is going to make life a bit harder on the Rangers.’ Chytil, the way he’s going, he’s going to be looking at this and saying ‘I’m a $7-million dollar player, too.”
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On K’Andre Miller, “To me, I’m looking at the Rangers and they are starting to go, they put The Kid Line back together, obviously that works. Miller, the one thing about Miller is, I don’t know how they are going to be able to do a long-term deal with that guy. To me, that just screams bridge until the cap starts going up because they are in a tight cap situation going forward and to me, that kid Miller is becoming one of the better defensemen in the NHL very quickly.
On how the Rangers might approach the deadline, “I think the Rangers this year, I think they are going to go big or at least try to and I believe they are in on Meier, I just have no idea how they can sign him and I wonder if the Rangers are just going to be one of those teams, whether it’s Patrick Kane or Tarasenko or a guy like Meier where they say ‘let’s go for it this year and we’ll worry about the summer in the summer.’ Even if they go out and get a guy like Meier, I think what they do is, they say ‘let’s just worry about this now and then we’ll deal with it in the summer…I think they are good enough, I think they are going to go for it, I think they are going to add, I just don’t know how they fit all the pieces together after this year, so you worry about it after this year.”
Adam Rotter: When it comes to signing their own players, I think that bridges for K’Andre Miller and Alexis Lafreniere are likely. Miller deserves a long-term deal and if Lafreniere keeps up his play then he would too, but they just don’t have the cap space to really make either happen. Two-year deals for each would set them up to potentially cash in big-time when the salary cap goes up. With Chytil, I have no idea. I don’t think he’s a $7 million dollar player, yet, but he’s certainly playing like, at least a, $4-$5 million dollar player. He’s two-years away from being a UFA so a bridge for him probably doesn’t work and a one-year deal just kicks it down the road, but if the Rangers believe in Chytil and want him long-term then they are going to have to deal with some comparable contracts that others have signed around the league.
I think it’s different to “go for it” if you are looking at rentals like Patrick Kane or Vladimir Tarasenko and another if you are looking at Timo Meier. The rentals are likely to cost less than Meier and so losing either of them, or another rental, is more palatable because you know going in that they likely aren’t going to be there long-term. With Meier, he’s still under contract and the price that he costs will reflect that. I mean, there is a path to keeping Meier, but it’s going to involve major surgery to make it work. Ultimately, I think that the Rangers are interested in Meier, but the mention of their interest may also be used to potentially drive up the price for another team to get him. I think that the rental market is probably where the Rangers will go.