Thoughts on the Brendan Lemieux contract

The NY Rangers finished their offseason yesterday by inking Brendan Lemieux to a two year contract. The deal avoided arbitration, and comes with a $1.55 million cap hit. The deal represents a 50% raise for Lemieux but also a manageable cap hit for the Rangers.

1. The two year deal was expected, and the dollar amount was also expected. Perhaps the only surprising thing about this offseason was that there were no surprises. Per Capfriendly, the Rangers have $4.8 million in cap space, but also a $3.9 million bonus overage penalty. I honestly have no idea how that works, but from what I’ve seen the Rangers have about $2 million to work with? The numbers don’t add up, but they are under the cap.

2. Lemieux again will be a restricted free agent when his contract is up. The Rangers did the right thing here. There are hopes he could be a Sean Avery lite, but Avery was more skilled than Lemieux has shown thus far. At $1.55 million, Lemieux is a good bottom-six option, as he is a good net-front presence and also carries a good penalty differential. If he develops some more skill, then he could be a mainstay on Broadway for more than just this contract.

3. But let’s level set, I know we all like Lemieux’s game, but it’s about production as well. Agitation without production isn’t worth $1.55 million, or more on his next deal. That said, there’s some promise here. His 82 game pace last season was 8-17-25, which –when paired with his penalty differential– is worth the money. *However* Lemieux does have some work to do away from the puck as well.

4. This is what I mean by improving production. It’s not always about the offensive numbers. Lemieux, as a bottom-six guy, won’t produce enough to outpace defensive play like this. Now the Rangers were a tire fire last year, so hopefully Jacques Martin instills some defensive structure and confidence. In theory, the defensive numbers get better with Martin and as the younger players get better. In theory.

5. Lemieux is also a name that could be exposed at the expansion draft. And quite honestly, I could see Seattle looking at him over players like Ryan Strome, Libor Hajek, and Brett Howden. Seattle has hired a lot of stats folks, and Lemieux is the most attractive of this quartet. The Rangers, though, could protect Lemieux.

6. Boy, how important is this coming season for those four guys? They are all competing for that last spot of expansion draft protection.

7. The Rangers did a good job kicking the can down road with a bunch of their guys. Let’s see how they develop their kids.