Tampa Bay is signing former Ranger Tyler Motte to a one-year deal worth $800,000. (Johnston)
Motte reportedly recently changed agents and had been looking for a bigger contract. (Dhaliwal)
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Adam Rotter: It’s the second straight year where Tyler Motte eventually signs a deal that the Rangers could have easily fit in. Like last summer, the Rangers spent July 1 adding role/depth players and basically signed everyone to around the league minimum. Excluding Blake Wheeler and Nick Bonino (who is a veteran, Cup winner and has experience with Peter Laviolette), the Rangers likely would have preferred Motte to Alex Belzile, Riley Nash, and Tyler Pitlick, but on July 1, Motte probably thought he was going to get at least two years and over $1 million. But like last summer, the market apparently wasn’t there for him and he signs another cheap one-year deal. Unlike last summer though, Motte is going to Tampa Bay and not Ottawa and so unless something crazy befalls the Lightning, the Rangers won’t get a third straight trade deadline of picking Motte up. Motte must be hoping that he can carve out a nice role in Tampa and then hopefully, next summer, parlay that into a multi-year deal.