The Rangers avoided Friday’s scheduled arbitration hearing with Mats Zuccarello in agreeing Tuesday afternoon to a one-year contract worth $3.5 million with last season’s leading scorer even as the club and Chris Kreider appear headed toward a hearing in Toronto on Wednesday morning.
Zuccarello, who recorded 59 points (19-40) for the Eastern Conference champions in his first full NHL season, is thus eligible to become a free agent next summer, but the Blueshirts and the 26-year-old left wing will continue to work on negotiating a long-term extension that, under terms of the CBA, cannot be signed and registered until Jan. 1.
As long as talks on the extension are not derailed by unforeseen and extenuating circumstances, this was a win-win for the cap-stressed Blueshirts, who would have been hit with a larger cap hit for 2014-15 on a straight multi-year contract that would necessarily have accounted for buying out years of free agency.
Zuccarello, who emerged as an integral part of the game plan at even-strength and on both specialty teams with Alain Vigneault behind the bench, will likely command in the neighborhood of $4.5 million per year long-term.
The signing leaves the Rangers with approximately $9.5 million in space with which to sign restricted free agents Kreider, Derick Brassard and John Moore, and fill another depth spot or two on the roster. Brassard, in the same contractual situation as Zuccarello, is continuing to negotiate for a long-term deal in advance of his scheduled Monday hearing. Moore, who is not eligible for arbitration, will likely play for close to his qualifier of $850,000.
Sources have told The Post that while both the Rangers and Kreider have demonstrated a willingness to compromise, the parties both have bottom-line numbers off which they have not been willing to move. As such, the 9 a.m. hearing remained on the docket as of Tuesday night, with Kreider having arrived in Toronto Tuesday afternoon. Assistant general manager Jeff Gorton will represent the Rangers.
Thus, barring a last-minute agreement, it will be up to arbitrator Daniel Brent to determine the 24-year-old, first-line left wing’s pay and cap hit over the next two seasons. The Rangers have proposed a deal worth an average of 2.05 million per ($1.9M this year and $2.2M for 2015-16) while Kreider’s proposal is for $2.8 million per.
Arbitrators historically have rendered decisions that come close to splitting the difference. In this case, the middle ground would be $2.425 million per. The Rangers’ cap squeeze is not admissible as evidence in the hearing.
The Rangers haven’t been through an arbitration hearing since 2009, when they ran — not walked — away from a $3.9 million award for Nikolay Zherdev. In 2011, the Blueshirts avoided arbitration with Brandon Dubinsky by reaching agreement on a four-year contract an hour or two before the hearing was scheduled to convene.
If no agreement is reached between Kreider and the Rangers, Brent will have 48 hours following the hearing to render his decision.