Free agency is now just a month away and teams are looking ahead to when it opens. There will be several impact players set to hit the open market in July while many teams have key restricted free agents to re-sign as well. We continue our look around the NHL with an overview of the free agent situation for the Rangers.
Key Restricted Free Agents
F Kaapo Kakko – Kaapo Kakko’s pending free agency has become just as prolific as the rest of his early career, with the former second-overall pick not doing much to warrant a shiny new contract after a big step back this season. Kakko scored 18 goals and 40 points last year, beginning to vie for a
somewhat comfortable role in the Rangers’ top-six, but he lost his momentum with just 13 goals and 19 points this year. It’s the third season of Kakko’s five-year career where he’s managed fewer than 20 points, with his career totals now sat at 117 points through 300 games. The measly scoring has continued into the postseason, where Kakko has just nine points in 44 career games. It’s hard to give up on one of the top names from an illustrious 2019 top 10, but New York will certainly use these contract negotiations as a chance to reset their expectations for the Finnish forward.
D Braden Schneider – Juxtaposing Kakko’s tame years with the Rangers, Schneider has done everything and then some to show he’s deserving of an everyday spot in the Rangers lineup since making his debut in 2021. He played in all 82 games this season and posted five goals and 19 points, one-upping his 18-point career-high set in 81 games last year. His ice time grew from an average of just 15 minutes in October to 17 minutes in the postseason, with Schneider even receiving top-line minutes multiple times throughout the season. It’s been a statement year for Schneider, who can enter negotiations confident that the Rangers will want to lock him up for the foreseeable future. But what price that term will require is yet to be seen. In a year with very few pending free agents, Schneider will be New York’s most integral re-signing.
D Ryan Lindgren – Amidst two restricted free agents on very different ends of the scale, Lindgren exists somewhere in the middle. His value is divisive, though he’s done a lot to show his worth as a stout defensive defender – even working his way into a confident second-pair and penalty-killing role this season. Lindgren posted 17 points in 76 games along the way, sticking within three points of his scoring totals in every season of his career. That consistency is commendable, if nothing else, and should be enough to pique New York’s interest. The Rangers could lock up their defense for the long-term this summer, a dream opportunity for a team faced with once again reconstructing the offense.
Other RFAs: F Karl Henriksson, F Bobby Trivigno, D Matthew Robertson, G Olof Lindbom
Key Unrestricted Free Agents
F Jack Roslovic – The Rangers acquired Roslovic at the Trade Deadline, sending a 2026 fourth-round pick back to the Columbus Blue Jackets. And while his play was ultimately a bit hot-and-cold in New York, he vindicated the cheap acquisition cost with 16 points in 35 games with the Rangers, split between the regular season and the playoffs. Roslovic served in his patented third-line role with the Rangers, offering grit and all-three-zones impact but never jumping off the page. As a result, his minutes were the first on the chopping block when the Rangers welcomed back Filip Chytil, bumping Roslovic down to the fourth line where he struggled to score. Roslovic was by no means detrimental in his short tenure with the Rangers, but he’s already lost when faced with competition for minutes. He plays a style that the Rangers welcome, and it’d be no surprise to see him return, but he could quickly price himself out of that option on a Rangers team with less than $12MM in cap space.
F Alexander Wennberg – Wennberg was another Deadline acquisition for the Rangers,
costing them a 2024 second-round pick and a 2025 fourth-round pick in a trade with the Seattle Kraken. The 25-year-old forward went on to struggle with the Rangers, posting just seven points through 35 games. He rotated around the team’s bottom-six, offering helpful lineup flexibility and even slotting onto special teams at points. Wennberg expressed interest in returning to New York in his exit interviews, even despite his modest role. He’ll likely be willing to take a cheap deal to make that happen, slotting him back in to a busy competition for minutes in New York’s bottom-six.
F Blake Wheeler – Wheeler’s last hoorah with the Rangers didn’t go entirely as planned, with the veteran forward playing in just 56 total games this season, after missing three months of the year’s second-half with a leg injury. He posted a just 21 points on the year, his lowest scoring since the 2009-10 season – his second year in the league. Wheeler’s recovery journey and valiant push to return for the playoffs have dominated much of the conversation around him, but the topic of retirement is looming. He will turn 38 before the start of next season and just had his one-year, $800K contract with the Rangers spoiled by injury. The Rangers are now rich with bottom-six forwards and likely don’t have room for Wheeler even if he does want to play another year. He’s likely set on testing the waters of the open market, which should help him make a call on if he’s ready to quit.
D Erik Gustafsson – New York has a wealth of depth defense options, especially as players like Matthew Robertson and Brandon Scanlin adjust more to NHL roles. But Gustafsson brought an exciting spark to the Rangers blue line, posting a strong 31 points in 76 games without ever looking like much of a liability on defense. He was an ace up Peter Laviolette’s sleeve, typically serving bottom-pair minutes but always ready to jump into a top-pair role should the Rangers need a boost. Extending Gustafsson runs the risk of creating a logjam on New York’s blue line. But the veteran defender seemed well-adjusted to the team’s systems and offers cheap depth that’s likely too valuable for New York to pass-up.
Other UFAs: D Chad Ruhwedel, F Nic Petan, F Tyler Pitlick, D Nikolas Brouilard, D Mac Hollowell
Projected Cap Space
New York is entering the off-season with just $11.61MM in cap space, getting a slight boost from the announcement of an $88MM cap ceiling. That should be enough money for them to re-sign any of their pending free agents that they wish to keep, though Schneider’s deal could quickly eat up space if it mirrors the long-term deals of players like Jake Sanderson, Mattias Samuelsson, and Alex Vlasic. Securing Schneider, and their picks of Lindgren and Gustafsson, will solidify a Rangers blue-line that looked sound for much of last season – but it may come at the cost of parting with their plethora of depth forwards.
Photos courtesy of USA Today Sports Images. Contract information courtesy of CapFriendly.
If Drury brings back any of the UFA’s, he should be put in a rocket and launched into the sun. Gustafsson was straight trash in postseason
As was Trouba against Florida. Gustafsson is paired on the 3rd set, so expectations for him aren’t as high. He’s worth bringing back.
Rangers will re-sign all RFAs. Not sign any big UFAs. Make 0 trades. Run it back. Maybe make a trade at the deadline (bc they’ll have 4.5mil this deadline when they had 900k last deadline). Then next offseason will be the time to make any drastic changes.
It is NOT hard — or shouldn’t be — to give up on so-called draft pedigree. I don’t give a good goddamn whether a player was first overall, and the son and grandson of Hall of Famers into the bargain: what I care about, if I root for the team, is whether the guy can play hockey or not. A top ten pick isn’t some mystic imprimatur; it’s an educated guess on a teenager’s ability to be a NHL star. Sometimes that guess doesn’t work out.
It’s five years in to his NHL career, and long past the time when Kakko can be judged on what he accomplished as a 16- and 17-year-old in Finland. What you see is what there is: a third-liner with decent defensive and possession metrics, and who should be paid like one.
Trade him for Kaliyev from the Kings.
Could be a good deal for both teams
Rangers need to bring In Tkachuk from Ottawa make the deal…
I really hope Kakko lands on a new team that can actually use him and give him a real opportunity on a top line with big minutes. All the hate he gets is unwarranted IMO. He’s received nothing but 3rd line minutes his entire career along with negligible power play time. In spite of this, and in spite of missing a month and a half this season, he somehow still managed to score as many even strength goals these last 2 seasons as Mika Zibanejad. His issue, along with Alexis Lafreniere before this season, is lack of opportunity. And even though Laffy had a “breakout” year, his points were almost exclusively at even strength, as he hasn’t been given a well-earned and deserving chance on PP1. Laffy should be at the very least a PPG player by now, but that’s nearly impossible when he doesn’t get the PP time.
My point is that both Kakko and Laffy would be far ahead of where they are now had they been drafted by teams that would’ve given them all the opportunities that top lottery picks normally receive. Kakko will prove all his detractors wrong if and when he’s on a new club and putting up 30-40 goals every year. Such a shame that the Rangers keep running it back with the same few guys getting all the prime minutes and ending up with absolutely nothing to show for it. Either use Kakko (and Laffy) correctly, or keep going home earlier than hoped for.