Ryan Stome

New York Rangers settling with Ryan Strome sends message of confidence in his abilities

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New York Rangers, Artemi Panarin

Even though the New York Rangers initially offered Ryan Strome less, the team decided to avoid arbitration and settle with the center on a two-year contract with an average annual value of $4.5 million. The move leaves the Rangers with approximately $3,891,867 of space remaining for a roster that currently has 11 forwards, seven defensemen, and two goaltenders.

Strome will earn $4 million this upcoming season and $5 million in 2021-22 in this deal.

The biggest question in dealing with Strome was whether this was a true indication of his talent or whether his true stat line was inflated by playing with Artemi Panarin. The 27-year-old broke out in a big way in 2019-20, passing the 50-point mark for the first time since 2014-15.

Prior to the agreement, Strome filed for $5.7 million, with the Rangers countering at $3.6 million. On Thursday, the two sides agreed to the $4.5 million which signifies that the Blueshirts are more than happy to keep the center with Panarin, something that was very important to the regular-season success last season. Part of this can be contributed to a very shallow free-agent pool at center, especially for a team that does not have a ton of salary-cap space.

The Rangers also knew that the pairing of Strome and Panarin was very productive, as the two compiled a .6575 goal-rate (48 goals for, 25 against) in 700:48 of five-on-five play. Numbers that the Rangers brass was apparently impressed enough to not risk letting Strome walk away and try to reproduce with a center that costs less money. This also signifies that they believe that Filip Chytyl is not quite ready to be a top-6 forward.

Strome posted 18 goals and a career-high 59 points in 70 games this past season. He added two assists in three games during the playoffs following the postponement of the season due to COVID-19.

Selected fifth overall by the New York Islanders in the 2011 NHL Draft, Strome was traded to the Rangers early in the 2018-19 season from the Edmonton Oilers in exchange for Ryan Spooner, a move that is looking like one of Jeff Gorton’s best moves during his tenure in New York.

 

 

New York Ranger’s Mom Takes the NHL Spotlight on Mother’s Day

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New York Rangers

It was just a few months ago that the New York Rangers held their annual trip that saw Ryan Strome’s mother become somewhat of a media sensation when she read the lineups to the Rangers before their victory against the Chicago Blackhawks. She reprised that role in their next road contest against Carolina, despite her son jokingly saying that experience “aged him five, maybe ten years”, which again resulted in a Rangers victory. These were just the first two of what turned out to be five straight victories, cementing the legend of Trish Strome.

Mrs. Strome featured on the NHL networks #HockeyatHome show

Trish Strome is not only the mother of the Ranger’s Ryan Strome, but she is also the proud mom of current Chicago Blackhawk Dylan and Philadelphia Flyers prospect Matthew, so it made perfect sense to feature her on the NHL Hockey Moms segment of the show.

A big part of the segment had to do with the famous reading of the lineup, something that caught Ryan off guard. “I didn’t know they were going to do that, so it really caught me off guard” Ryan explained and also added that “it was quite something and the Internet caught it and it blew up quite a bit”

Even though she may have looked calm and collective during the lineup announcement, Trish Stomme did not have a lot of time to prepare. So her well-quoted lines like “Move..him..the..puck…”, and “I just like saying Shesterkin” was very much improvised. “The gave like 5 minutes notice” she explained, “so I didn’t have a lot of time to be nervous.”

The interview was conducted by Kathyrn Tappan of NBC Sports, who asked Mrs. Strome about what she thought about having the boys home due to the coronavirus pandemic’s and the NHL’s stay-at-home restriction: “I love having them around” but added, “I do miss the hockey.”

The entire segment also features interviews with Vancouver Canucks defenseman Quinn Hughes and New Jersey Devils forward Jack Hughes with their mom, Ellen; and emergency backup goalie David Ayres with his mom, Mary. The episode can be found on the NHL’s digital platforms and will air on NBCSN on Wednesday, May 13, at 5 p.m., as well as on the NHL Network on Thursday, May 14, at 9:30 p.m. ET.

Need Injury Advice? The New York Rangers Can Just Look to their Next Opponent

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New York Rangers, Igor Shesterkin

The New York Rangers have struggled a bit in their last couple of games. It is not like losing to the Philadelphia Flyers twice in a row is a bad thing, but it was how they lost that has many worried. The Blueshirts have now had to deal with injuries to two of their major players in recent days after Chris Kreider will be lost for an undetermined amount of time, joining Igor Shesterkin who has been out after being involved in an auto accident. Injuries to key players always take a little time to adjust, a luxury the Rangers do not really have. But if they are looking for a model of how to deal with it, they can look at the opponent Tuesday night, the St. Louis Blues.

What have the Blues done that the New York Rangers can learn from?

Let’s set aside the Jay Boumeester situation for just a minute. That is a little bit of a unique situation. The big injury that the Blues had to overcome was to Vladimir Tarasneko, who underwent surgery on his left shoulder after he was injured in an Oct. 24 game against the Los Angeles Kings and was originally stated to be out for at least five months. He has recently started practicing with the team and could rejoin them in time for the playoffs. However, they went through a long stretch of the season without a player who scored over 33 goals in each of the past five seasons. So how did they survive and remain in first place in their division? The fact that young talents such as Zach Sanford and Jordan Kyrou have turned up their games recently has helped ease the pain of this loss. A Blues player may have summed it up best when Oskar Sundqvist said. “We’re starting to find our game and we’re a tight group in here, especially in the D-zone. We’re finding our roles, and that’s important now as it was during the whole season.” It is not like the Blues have had smooth sailing all season long. In one recent stretch, the Blues went in a 2-7-3 funk until winning four games by a combined score of 13-2. So the key is to have the expectation that all of the players need to step up. The Rangers cannot afford to have games like the did Sunday from Ryan Strome, who was eventually benched by head coach David Quinn.  The Rangers did a good thing by having a talk with Strome as Quinn stated on Monday that “We talked before practice today, and I would do that with any player. Letting the guy wonder isn’t good for anybody. He’s back at it, and we’ll need him.” The Rangers will need every single player on their roster to play like they are capable if they have any chance to weather these injuries and capture a playoff spot.