The New York Rangers are in a salary-cap squeeze.
With only $2,180,833 million in cap space, general manager Glen Sather doesn't have much financial flexibility to sign No. 1 center and leading scorer from last season Derek Stepan.
According to Larry Brooks of the New York Post, the two sides still have some work to do before a resolution is reached. At the moment, the 23-year-old forward not being at Alain Vigneault's first training camp as Rangers head coach (which starts on Wednesday) is a real possibility.
It's no surprise that Sather is holding a firm ground in negotiations. The Rangers would prefer to give Stepan a "bridge contract" of two years before signing him long term. This would allow the team to have a large sample size of production at the NHL level to determine if the 23-year-old is worth $5-plus million per season.
While this is certainly a smart approach for a franchise to take, there is no reason to play games with Stepan's agent, because we have already seen enough quality performances in his three NHL seasons to suggest that he's worthy of a long-term contract righ ...
Read Full Article at Bleacher Report - NHL
Article written by Nicholas Goss
Why New York Rangers Should Sign Derek Stepan to a Long-Term Contract
September 10th, 2013 by Nicholas Goss Leave a reply »
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