Braden Schneider has avoided his arbitration hearing and signed a one-year deal worth $5.5 million. (Friedman)
Schneider is slated to be the Rangers third-pair right defenseman behind Adam Fox and newly acquired Sean Durzi.
He will be an RFA with arbitration rights again next summer.
Adam Rotter: A one-year deal essentially means that most of the questions we had this summer about Schneider and his long-term fit with the Rangers will just resurface during the season if the Rangers struggle again or into next summer when he’ll be one year away from being a UFA. Schneider has been talked about as a trade candidate since the Rangers re-tool letter last season because a lot of teams were calling about him and also because as a young, established defenseman with upside, and without any trade protection, he could potentially bring back a lot of pieces. The Rangers seemed to have a very high price on Schneider, as they should, and it seems like it was the kind of price that indicated that they didn’t really want to move him but that if they did it would have been understandable why. Instead the Rangers acquired Sean Durzi in the Vincent Trocheck trade and then opted to trade Will Borgen for a couple of draft picks.
Schneider was thrust into a bigger role than expected last season with the injuries to Adam Fox and the overall lack of depth on defense. The Rangers are much stronger on defense heading into this season and hopefully that will allow Schneider to just play his game and play his style. There is still a chance that he’s with the Rangers long-term but like with K’Andre Miller, I’m not sure the Rangers wanted to make such a big commitment to a player if they aren’t yet totally sold. This one-year deal does mean that if the Rangers do want to commit to Schneider long-term that it will likely be at a much higher dollar figure than they would have now, but if they get to the point where they are comfortable making that commitment then I think they will be fine with it.