Does Chris Kreider’s extension put Ryan Strome’s future in question?

The Rangers bet on Chris Kreider and his role with the team, inking him to a seven year contract extension with a $6.5 million cap hit at the trade deadline, ensuring the life long Ranger would remain in New York for the foreseeable future. The extension sent a message to the team that they believe in this group.

At the deadline, the Rangers also showed their hand when it came to the blue line, sending Brady Skjei to Carolina for a 1st round pick, but most importantly not taking any salary back in the deal. On paper, this looks like the Blueshirts made a choice between Skjei and Tony DeAngelo, and chose the latter.

Now the focus is on Ryan Strome, who is due a big raise on his $3.2 million salary this season ($3.1 million cap hit). Strome is among the team leaders in points, partially benefiting from a career year from Artemi Panarin to the tune of 16-39-55.

Strome is likely looking at a multi-year contract extension worth at least $5 million, especially when you consider he is outscoring Kreider’s $6.5 million pace right now. As an arbitration eligible RFA, he does lose some negotiating power, but not much as anything beyond next season would be a UFA year.

The Rangers have the cap space next year to sign him to that kind of deal, that isn’t the concern. The concern is the future years of the deal when players like Filip Chytil, Kaapo Kakko, Adam Fox, and Pavel Buchnevich will be needing new contracts. The cap won’t rise enough for the Rangers to keep Strome and all of those guys, even with the Henrik Lundqvist, Brendan Smith, and Marc Staal contracts coming off the books.

Another concern is role on the roster. The Kreider-Zibanejad-Buchnevich line appears to be here to stay. At some point Chytil and Kakko are going to join Panarin on the second line. Do the Rangers want to pay $5 million for a 3C? Is that the best cap management?

Remember – paying your top players isn’t the issue. It’s paying the middle guys big money to be middle guys. The Rangers made that mistake six years ago with numerous inflated contracts for middle of the lineup players. It won’t be until next season when the last two come off the books. Do they really want to make the same mistake twice?

This isn’t a slight on Strome – it’s pure cap and asset management. The draft is when bigger trades of this magnitude happen, and the Rangers may have a monster package to offer with Strome and Alex Georgiev. Is that enough to start the conversation to get them a top-four LD and address a huge hole on the roster with the Skjei trade?

Much like the Keane for Gauthier swap – the Rangers have an opportunity to deal from a position of strength –middle six C– to fill a hole in the roster on defense. What’s worth more? A $5 million eventual 3C, or using that resource to fill a hole in the roster?