Larry Brooks
It is universally recognized that the intangibles Ryan Lindgren brings into the room and onto the ice cannot be quantified. The issue, though, is that the Rangers and the defenseman are going to be obligated to do just that with No. 55 coming up on restricted free agency with arbitration rights this summer.
More to the point is that Lindgren is only a year away from unrestricted free agency so a one-year agreement will not do. The Blueshirts are going to need to strike an agreement for a multiyear extension.
There was no fuss and no muss the last time when Lindgren re-upped for three years at $9 million at an annual $3M cap hit within a day of the close of the 2020-21 season. That indeed represented Chris Drury’s first order of business after replacing Jeff Gorton as GM. The Blueshirts can only hope the process goes as smoothly this time.
The Rangers have eight games remaining in which to nail down the Presidents’ Trophy for the fourth time since 1992 (1992, 1994, 2015) beginning with Monday’s first visit of the season by the Penguins. Securing home-ice advantage for the prospective four rounds of the playoffs is the first order of business for this group that is on yet another heater — five straight — and is 21-4-1 since Jan. 27.
But there is no harm in taking a look ahead at what the Rangers will confront this offseason even if individual fates will be determined over the next 11 or 12 weeks. Surely there will be a Column A if the Rangers go deep and a Column B if calamity strikes. Futures will hang in the balance.
Lindgren, though, should be under both columns regardless of how this all shakes out. There is no more known quantity on the Rangers than this lefty defenseman, who is only 26 years old and is one of the prizes of the deadline purges of 2018 and 2019.
Here’s one. Did you realize that Lindgren was selected 17 spots ahead of Adam Fox in the 2016 entry draft in which No. 55 was chosen by Boston and No. 23 by Calgary? The pair, first united nine years ago on the USNDT U17’s, will line up against Pittsburgh for their 298th NHL game as a tandem.
There are 19 defense pairs in the NHL that have played at least 750 minutes at five-on-five. The Lindgren-Fox duo has the best goals-for differential in the league at 64.15 percent (34 for, 19 against). And over the 4,158:43 Fox and Lindgren have played as a pair starting with the Oct. 29, 2019 match against Tampa Bay, they have been on for 194 goals for and 129 goals against for a percentage of 60.06. Not too shabby.
There is always concern about Lindgren’s body breaking down. That has become kind of a running joke, though. Yes, there is a price to be paid for putting his (listed) 6-foot, 190-pound body on the line every shift — and don’t forget his face! — but Lindgren hardly seems to be wearing down. Obviously he had a backlog of available inventory at the body parts store.
The blue-collar ethos is vital to a team that has historically been a white gloves operation. Head coach Peter Laviolette broke up his five-on-five pairs in order to elevate Lindgren onto the first penalty-kill unit with Jacob Trouba. The club has thrived in that area, fourth in the league on the PK at 83.3 percent, with Lindgren’s 2:42 of shorthanded ice time per game second to the captain’s 2:55. What you see is what you get.
Drury’s massage of the cap last summer probably doesn’t get enough credit as it or the GM merits. On the eve of free agency, the Rangers had $11.7 million available to fill…
This article was originally published by a nypost.com . Read the Original article here. .