The Rangers reportedly did not qualify four players ahead of the league deadline at 5:00pm Eastern today. Forwards Gabriel Fontaine and Patrick Newell, along with defensemen Brandon Crawley and Yegor Rykov were not given qualifying offers, meaning they will become UFAs at 12:00pm Eastern on Wednesday.
Of the four, two were former Rangers draft picks – Crawley 2017 4th round and Fontaine 2016 6th round, while one was acquired in trade – Rykov as part of the trade that sent Michael Grabner to New Jersey in the February 2018 deadline deal, and Newel an undrafted free agent signing after a breakout season in his senior year at St Cloud State.
None of the four made it to the NHL, with Brandon Crawley perhaps getting the closest following a strong pre-season performance in 2017. Rykov moved back to Russia last year after failing to impress in Hartford in the 2019-20 season.
Fontaine suffered a shoulder injury that caused him to miss much of 2019-20 and he managed just 4 games in the abbreviated AHL season last year. He has a career high of 11 goals and 26 points, both set back in 2018-19 with the Pack. Newell bounced between the ECHL and AHL in his first pro season and played a career high 57 games in 2019-20 with the Wolfpack, registering 6 goals and 7 assists. He matched his point total last year in 24 games, but at 25 years of age his time with the Rangers has passed.
Perhaps moderately surprising is that the Rangers did qualify Tim Gettinger and Ty Ronning. Gettinger has made it to the NHL in a couple of cameos, while Ronning is yet to make the jump, but has made the jump from the ECHL to the AHL after spending much of his first two seasons in the lower league. Ronny found some goalscoring touch last year, registering 10 goals and 8 assists in 18 games with the Pack.
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