It used to be that Restricted Free Agents had little leverage, but over the years and various Collective Bargaining Agreements, they’ve gradually added some negotiating power. It doesn’t hurt either that the Salary Cap is now a potential weapon for rival GMs to poach players, or at the very least cause Cap pain.
With that in mind, Ryan McDonagh‘s six year, $28.2M deal may not seem to bad for a top pair defenseman. It’s a long commitment from the player, who could well have gotten more money if he’d gone for a shorter term, but with this contract he’ll be overpaid to begin with, before likely ending up on the other end of the scale at the end. It’ll also mean that the Rangers will have one of their prime defenseman locked up through to the age of thirty.
The move, combined with the three signings on July 5th, means they Rangers now have around $6.5M in cap space to sign Derek Stepan, Carl Hagelin, Mats Zuccarello and Justin Falk – unless they can get the latter on a two-way contract, along with Brandon Mashinter.
The Rangers can go over the Cap by another $6.4M during the summer, and could clear another $1.8M of Cap space by assigning veterans Darroll Powe and Arron Asham to the AHL prior to the start of the season. They’ll also potentially have some injury reserve room, with Ryan Callahan and Carl Hagelin expected to miss some time to start the year.