A day after re-signing Mats Zuccarello to avoid arbitration, the New York Rangers did the same with another restricted free agent on Wednesday, Chris Kreider.
The young forward out of Boston College is one of the future building blocks in New York and getting him under contract sooner rather than later and preferably without issue was imperative. With Zuccarello taken care of, GM Glen Sather could turn to Kreider and hammer out a deal there, too.
His new deal, according to Tim Wharnsby of CBC, is two years.
#NYR Kreider settled 2 yrs @ $2.35 M and $2.60 M.
— Tim Wharnsby (@WharnsbyCBC) July 23, 2014
Talk about a deal just in the nick of time. Kreider had been scheduled for his arbitration hearing on Wednesday but as we always see, nothing can get a deal done quite like that deadline.
Kreider struggled to find his way a bit under John Tortorella, going in and out of the lineup, but he found a more comfortable role in Alain Vigneault's first season. He ended up appearing in 66 regular-season games for the Rangers, finishing with 17 goals and 20 assists. He began to look like a future power-play weapon for a team that needs them as well as six of his goals came on the advantage and 12 of his 37 points.
Kreider was limited to 15 games in the Rangers' Stanley Cup Final run but did finish with five goals and eight assists.
This deal is the standard bridge deal that Sather is so fond of, one that will take him from his entry-level deal to his first big contract with Kreider needed to prove he's worth the bigger deal but for now it's a pretty solid deal for the Rangers, especially in their cap situation.
The Rangers still have two RFAs left after this deal with Derick Brassard and John Moore still needing deals.
