Via Darren Dreger, the Rangers have agreed to terms with veteran center Jason Arnott on a one year deal worth between $1.6-$1.7 million. More to come as details become available, but considering the Rangers’ lack of depth at forward and the early season face-off woes, I think this is a great pick up.
Per Larry Brooks, the Rangers have agreed to terms with defenseman Matt Gilroy. The contract is believed to be for one year at $650,000. We noted that Gilroy adds some much-needed depth and flexibility to the Rangers blue line, and was number two on the list of things we can expect the Rangers can do with business operating as usual.
Update 10:55am: Larry Brooks is reporting that the deal is worth $2.55 million annually.
Update 10:30am: Pierre LeBrun is reporting that the deal is two years. No monetary details have been released.
Original Post: Per Bob McKenzie, the Rangers have agreed to terms with RFA defenseman Michael Del Zotto. Terms of the deal have not been disclosed, but Del Zotto will be in camp today. MDZ was priority number one for the Rangers in their “preseason” agenda.
We will post more updates as they become available.
Back in June, we were the first site to really sit down and figure out what MDZ’s contract might be. Check it out here.
Marek Hrivik, who many speculated would get a long look at camp (well, under normal camp) is out with a concussion. This could be one of the reasons why Hrivik may not be invited to the Rangers mini-camp this year. However with camps set to occur during the AHL season, and lasting only a week, it is unlikely that the Rangers would call up the majority of Connecticut’s roster. Chris Kreider and Matt Gilroy are the only two who have left the Whale at the moment, and there’s no reason to believe anyone else will leave for mini camp.
In other news, the Whale have officially signed forward Shayne Wiebe to an AHL contract. Wiebe had been with the Whale on a PTO since November 17, when he was called up from the Greenville Road Warriors. In 14 games since his call up, Wiebe has a pair of assists and two PIMs. While with the Road Warriors, Wiebe had a line of 7-5-12 and 10 PIMs in 12 games.
Welcome back Matt Gilroy to the New York Rangers organization. Recognizing that they are (very) thin on defense, CT GM Jim Schoenfeld turned to a familiar face by signing the former Ranger defenseman (per Larry Brooks).
Matt Gilroy has signed AHL contract with Whale. Prodigal free agent D presumably will sign with Rangers when lockout ends.
What Brooks adds there is an interesting little tidbit, as the Rangers were short on defensive depth last season. Remember that Gilroy was a free agent when the lockout began, which made him free to sign with any AHL club. Gilroy will remain with Connecticut for the duration of the lockout, and as Brooks mentions, might be up with the Rangers once the lockout is over.
In two seasons with the Rangers, Gilroy contributed 7 goals and 19 assists in 127 games before signing with the Tampa Bay Lightning for the 2011-2012 season. That year, Gilroy finished with a line of 3-17-20 in 67 games with Tampa Bay and the Ottawa Senators.
Assistant GM (and GM of the Connecticut Whale) Jim Schoenfeld continues to be active, as he has signed another player to an AHL contract. This time, Schoenfeld has inked undrafted forward Jordie Johnston out of Ferris State.
Johnston, who stand at 6’0 and 180 lbs, finished his four-year career at Ferris State with a career line of 30-27-57 with 102 PIMs in 136 games. Following graduation, Johnston played three games with the Bridgeport Sound Tigers, but was not given a contract.
The Whale sure are busy right now. Just two days after adding Danny Hobbs to an AHL deal, and one day after announcing the training camp roster, Connecticut has announced that they have signed defenseman Sebastien Piche to an AHL contract.
The 6’0 194 lb. defenseman has spent the last three seasons in the AHL and ECHL with the Detroit Red Wings and Tampa Bay Lightning organizations. In 42 career AHL games, Piche has zero goals and five assists. Piche will likely bounce between the Whale and the Greenville Road Warriors (ECHL) while with the Rangers organization.
Piche’s signing is a depth move for the Whale as they look to solidify their roster for the upcoming season.
While the Rangers practice themselves, the Connecticut Whale are preparing to open training camp soon. They have added forward Danny Hobbs to an AHL deal. Hobbs, the Rangers 7th round pick in 2007, was not signed by the Rangers after his senior season (2011-2012) at UMass-Amherst.
With the Whale adding Hobbs to an AHL deal, and the Rangers passing on adding him via an ELC, the organization gets the opportunity to develop Hobbs without having him count against the 50 contract limit.
In four years at UMass-Amherst, Hobbs finished with a line of 28-35-63 in 120 games, with 76 PIMs.
Per Renaud Lavoie, the Rangers have signed prospect Michael St. Croix to an entry level deal:
https://twitter.com/RenLavoieRDS/status/246595996069535744
The deal is great for both sides. St. Croix has the potential to be a fantastic scorer in the league, especially considering how he has dominated the WHL. As Lavoie noted, the deal is for $575,000 annually with a $270,000 signing bonus, for a cap hit of $665,000. This also means that St. Croix can play in the AHL in the event of a lockout (if he doesn’t stick with the Edmonton Oil Kings of the WHL).
First off, apologies for the blog being down yesterday. There was a major GoDaddy outage, and we were affected by it. Naturally, during two months of no Ranger news, the day we have an outage is the day the Rangers make a move.
The organization decided that they want a third year of Steve Eminger, and re-signed him to a one year, $750,000 deal. Eminger, a right-handed shot, was seeing top-four minutes for a good portion of the season last year before suffering a separated shoulder. The injury cost him 21 games, and then an ankle injury cost him 12 more regular season and seven playoff games.
In 107 career games for the Rangers, Eminger has four goals, seven assists, and 50 PIMs. He’s not being paid to score, he’s being paid to be serviceable in his own end and provide solid depth defense. Looking at his GVT and DGVT numbers from last year, he did just that. His 1.2 GVT and 1.5 DGVT in 42 games average out to a 2.34 GVT and a 2.92 DGVT over 82 games. Using handy-dandy PVT, having Eminger as a depth defenseman gave the Rangers an extra point in the standings.
