Day: October 12, 2020

It was more a formality than anything, what with entry level contracts pretty much defined by the Collective Bargaining Agreement, but still it’s another step on the road to next season.  Alexis Lafreniere, who turned 19 on Sunday, can now official participate in games for the New York Rangers, whenever that might be.

Along with the signing, he has chosen to wear #13, a number that has been a bit of a mixed bag for the Rangers over the years.  The last to wear the number was Kevin Hayes, who carried it from the 2014-15 season until 2019 when he was traded to the Winnipeg Jets.  Others to wear the number include Valeri Kamensky, Sergei Nemchinov, Nikolai Zherdev and Daniel Carcillo.

News this weekend focused mostly on the departure of Jesper Fast and the signing of the much maligned Jack Johnson.  Rick Carpinello of The Athletic starts us off with an introduction on the problem, which is largely centered around the Rangers lack of Cap space – mostly related to the buy-outs, but also due to the number of players on entry level contracts and their associated bonuses.

Turns out that the Rangers could be due as much an additional $4-$5M of bonuses, depending on who plays and what they achieve according to Larry Brooks of the New York Post.  As to Fast’s departure, Brooks does mention the Rangers didn’t want to go to three years, and thus we are where we are.