The Rangers have signed RFA Braden Schneider to a two-year deal that has a cap hit of $2.2 million. (Friedman)
Schneider will make $1.635 million this season and $2.64 million next season. (Puck Pedia)
The Rangers now have about $5.123 million in cap space. (Puck Pedia)
Adam Rotter: This wasn’t overly surprising since just about everything the Rangers do has to have next summer and the new contracts for Igor Shesterkin, Alexis Lafreniere and K’Andre Miller in mind. They will need to eat into some of that money to re-sign Ryan Lindgren since he would be a UFA next summer if he only signed a one-year deal, but there was no real need to pay Schneider a higher cap hit on a longer-term deal when he’ll still be an RFA when this deal expires and they want to maintain as much flexibility now as they can.
The expectation is that Schneider will get more of an opportunity this season and likely be paired with K’Andre Miller, but we’ll have to wait until training camp to know that for sure. Maybe the Rangers still start training camp with Jacob Trouba and Miller together as a way to sort of show Trouba he still has a major role, but I don’t think it would be long before Miller forces his way into more minutes.