The Small Market Sabres did no favors for the Metropolis Rangers by signing Dylan Cozens, midway through the 21-year-old center’s third season, to a seven-year extension worth an average annual value of $7.1 million per year.
Cozens, the seventh-overall selection of the 2019 draft, has scored 17 goals while having a breakout season for the Sabres, who seem to be coalescing after 11 straight seasons out of the playoffs.
Hmm.
Filip Chytil has scored 19 goals while having a breakout season for the Rangers, notching his seventh in the last five games and 11th in the last 13 in a soporific 4-3 victory over the Canucks on Wednesday at the Garden.
The 23-year-old center also is a pending free agent with arbitration rights. Guess whose contract now will become part of the presentation for Chytil as he negotiates with Rangers president and general manager Chris Drury?
Why, yes, Cozens’ contract. Cozens has a career 94 points (34-60) in 169 games as opposed to Chytil’s 125 points (61-64) in 296 games. The Buffalo center entered Wednesday with .20 goals-per-game and .64 points-per-game as contrasted with the Blueshirt pivot’s .20 GPG and .42 PPG.
Up until a week or so ago, it appeared as if signing K’Andre Miller to a second contract this summer would represent Drury’s heaviest lifting while confronting a 2022-23 salary cap scenario that is impossible.
Now, the Rangers are directly under this double-edged sword that the NHL enjoys dangling over teams’ heads when draft picks make good and thus are in line to rake it in on second or third contracts. Teams are penalized in the standings when draft picks bust and teams are penalized by the cap when draft picks boom.
The trade deadline is three weeks and one day away, but the parameters under which Drury works in the interim will be informed by the cap for next season. Here is the stark reality:
The Rangers have seven forwards (Artemi Panarin, Mika Zibanejad, Chris Kreider, Vincent Trocheck, Kaapo Kakko, Barclay Goodrow and Jimmy Vesey), five defensemen (Adam Fox, Jacob Trouba, Ryan Lindgren, Braden Schneider and Ben Harpur) and one goaltender (Igor Shesterkin) under contract next season for a cap hit of approximately $66.739 million.
Under next season’s projected $83.5 million cap, that will leave Drury with approximately $16.761 million to add an additional six forwards, two defensemen and a backup goaltender. That includes signing pending restricted free agents Chytil, Miller and Alexis Lafreniere. Depending on the state of negotiations, those three youngsters may eat close to all of that $16-plus million.
Now you tell me how on earth Drury is going to add a player with term on his contract leading into this deadline. The Rangers may have to sacrifice Goodrow or — heaven forbid — Lindgren to be cap compliant next season just as they are.
But they are supposed to have interest in trading for Timo Meier and his $10 million qualifying offer. Where are the laughing-crying emojis when you need them?
Similarly, Nino Niederreiter would be a terrific fit for this team heading into the playoffs, but the checking wing has one year at $4 million left on his contract. Jordan Greenway would be an interesting add, but the Minnesota wing has two years at $3 million per remaining on his deal.
I have advocated attempting to pry Tanner Jeannot away from Nashville even though he is a pending restricted free agent with arbitration rights who is going to merit a substantial bump over the current $800,000 entry level cap hit. That would be tricky enough, but I would project the hard-edged 25-year-old winger to become part of the core for the next five years. So for me, the cap headache would be worth it.
Chytil is the only one of the Rangers’ three marquee pending restricted free agents who holds arbitration rights. He is also just two years away from unrestricted free agency, meaning that the Rangers would not be able to save a little by bridging the Czech. Unless, that is, the idea is to usher Chytil onto the open market. If not, the Blueshirts are going to have to buy out the first three or four years of his free agency if it becomes a five-year or six-year deal.
Before Cozens, I had been checking comparables for Chytil out of his 2017 draft class, from which the 21st-overall selection ranks third in games played (295), seventh in goals (60) and 10th in points (124).
Ottawa’s 121st-overall Drake Batherson (40-57-97 in 145 games) is on a six-year deal worth $4.975 million per that I presume the Rangers would jump at. The Senators’ Josh Norris (54-39-93 in 133 games), 19th-overall, is on an eight-year second contract worth $7.95 million per. Montreal’s Nick Suzuki (65-118-183 in 260 games), 13th-overall, is on an eight-year second contract for $7.85 million per.
By the way. Chtyil leads the Rangers with 14 goals at five-on-five and is eighth in the NHL (among players with at least 500 minutes) in five-on-five goals-per-60:00 at 1.57.
If you think the Rangers are going to get Chytil on the cheap, I would advise you to think again. I would also advise Drury to procure an abacus or two. He’s going to need them.
