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New York Rangers Sign Ryan Reaves to One-Year Contract Extension

Ryan Reaves was recently acquired from the Vegas Golden Knights in exchange for a 2022 third-round draft pick, and the New York Rangers have signed him to a one-year contract extension.

As we said when Reaves was acquired, the move was done so because of the Rangers’ desire to get tougher, and to have an answer for Tom Wilson like situations.

Reaves is one of the league’s remaining heavyweight enforcers with 71 fights in his NHL career. His current contract was worth $1.75 million against the salary cap, and the expectation is that his extension is worth the same amount.

Say what you will about the merits of acquiring Reaves in the first place, a move that has split opinions already, but signing him to an extension before he even plays a game for the team doesn’t make sense. Chris Drury has been talking about cap space, and the importance of having flexibility, and $1.75 million is not an insignificant amount.

While $1,125,000 of that can be buried in the event things don’t work out, it is still bad business given the numerous players who will have new deals kicking in, or will need to be signed after this season.

This doesn’t even factor in cap implications of players who could still be acquired, so overall this is just another head scratching decision that seems ill timed and unnecessary.

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