With less than a week to go until the start of the 2025 National Hockey League Entry Draft and the start of free agency on July 1st, there are questions that people keep asking regarding the New York Rangers. It would be nice to have a crystal ball to read the mind of New York Rangers President and General Manager Chris Drury for the answers.
For Rangers fans, the matter should be what the Rangers’ biggest priorities are over the next couple of weeks. Here are the two biggest priorities:
What should be the biggest priority facing the Rangers?
That question might be the easiest one to answer, as the number one priority for Chris Drury should be getting Will Cuylle to sign a new contract before July 1st. Why do you ask?
For starters, with Chris Kreider traded, Will Cuylle becomes the number one power forward on the team. But it is also a matter of if you get Cuylle signed, then you will not have to worry about someone coming along and giving him an offer sheet.
It is also a matter of once the Rangers have Cuylle signed, then they will know how much they must spend on adding any unrestricted free agent. At the time this is being written, the Rangers will have $13,172,142 in free cap space.
The Rangers do not want to risk someone coming along and giving Cuylle an offer sheet that inflates his salary to where it then limits what Drury can do with free agents. That is because the next question becomes:
What Restricted Free Agents should the Rangers make qualifying offers to?
Besides Cuylle, the Rangers still have K’Andre Miller, Zac Jones, Adam Edstrom, and Arthur Kaliyev as restricted free agents. All of them are eligible to file for arbitration, an area that the Rangers do not want to find themselves in.
The easier answer is who not to qualify, and that starts with Arthur Kaliyev, as Brett Berard or Gabe Perreault replace him. As for Jones and Edstrom, qualify them but then go to them and offer them the same money that Matt Rempe got, as it is fair money for one player who was injured (Edstrom) and the other who has not been able to remain in the lineup (Jones).
But what of K’Andre Miller? He has no trade value due to his play, and that qualifying offer of $4,646,000 will prevent the Rangers from being able to upgrade either the team in free agency.
Better to let him walk than be stuck with him for another couple of seasons.
If the Rangers need to spend around $ 5 million on a defenseman, then they can do a whole lot better than K’Andre Miller.
So, give Will Cuylle between $3-4 million, Jones and Edstrom close to $1 million each and that leaves the Rangers somewhere around $7 million to spend on improving the defense.
A much better deal than keeping K’Andre Miller.
