The Rangers retained former second-round draft pick Matthew Robertson, signing the restricted free agent to a one-year, two-way contract on Monday.
According to The Washington Post’s Molly Walker, the 23-year-old Robertson will make the league minimum of $775,000 if he plays in the NHL.
Robertson, who has been with the team since 2019, is yet to play in an NHL game but could have a chance to do so this season.
He will likely compete for the team’s seventh defenseman position in training camp along with Chad Ruhwedel and possibly Ben Harper, who re-signed with a similar two-way contract last week.
As July 1 passed quietly without a trade for Jacob Trouba, tidying up the defensive line became a top offseason priority for the Rangers.
The captain was thought to be on the move and the Red Wings were thought to be a possible destination, but according to the Post’s Larry Brooks, the trade was put on hold because the captain didn’t want to leave New York, partly because his wife is in the hospital.
Moving Trouba would have prompted a reshuffle on the blue line, but keeping him meant keeping things relatively intact was a priority.
Erik Gustafsson signed with Detroit as a free agent, Chris Drury has been successful in that regard so far, Ruhwedel remained on a two-way league minimum contract, and Braden Schneider signed a two-year bridge deal shortly thereafter with a salary of $2.2 million per year.
One big task that remains to be completed is re-signing Ryan Lindgren, who filed for arbitration as a restricted free agent.
The Rangers have about $5.1 million in salary-cap space remaining, so keeping their top-pairing D should be quite doable, but it would have to happen soon, as arbitration hearings are scheduled to take place between July 20 and Aug. 4.
If the Lindgren situation is resolved amicably, the Rangers will enter the season with five of the six defensemen who were in the playoff lineup that lost in six games to the Panthers in the conference finals.
Zach Jones will likely join Trouba in Gustafsson’s position on the left side of the third pairing.
The Rangers can expect Robertson to overtake the University of Massachusetts product at some point this season, but the main competition in training camp will likely be between Robertson and Ruhwedel for the No. 7 defenseman position.
