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.

The signing also pushed the Rangers over the bonus limit applied to players who can earn performance bonuses.  The Rangers now have an additional $3.95M Cap hit applied to this year’s team number, adding to the almost $13M in dead cap space allocated to buy outs for Henrik Lundqvist, Dan Girardi, Kevin Shattenkirk and Ryan Spooner.