The New York Rangers have secured winger Alexis Lafrenière with a seven-year contract extension, announced on Friday.
According to a source familiar with the agreement, the contract is valued at $52.15 million. This information was shared with The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity, as the specific terms were not made public.
Once the new contract begins next NHL season, Lafrenière will have a salary cap hit of $7.45 million annually through 2032.
The 2020 draft’s No. 1 pick achieved career highs last season with 28 goals, 29 assists, and 57 points. At just 23 years old, he is off to a strong start this season, averaging a point per game with seven points in seven games.
In his career, Lafrenière has accumulated 178 points in 348 regular-season and playoff games for a team that has reached the Eastern Conference finals twice since he joined.
His cap hit is slightly lower than the $7.6 million that Montreal committed to 2022 top pick Juraj Slafkovsky. New Jersey’s Jack Hughes, selected first in 2019, earns $8 million annually through 2030, while Buffalo’s Rasmus Dahlin, the top pick in 2021, is set to make $11 million through 2032.
While Lafrenière would have been a restricted free agent this summer, the Rangers still have a significant re-signing on their agenda. Goaltender Igor Shesterkin is set to become an unrestricted free agent, and without a new contract, he could enter the open market on July 1.
Shesterkin is in line to potentially secure the most lucrative contract for a goalie in the salary cap era, possibly exceeding the eight-year, $84 million deal that Carey Price received from the Canadiens in 2017. Recently, both Dallas and Boston have signed their goalies, Jake Oettinger and Jeremy Swayman, to identical contracts worth $66 million over eight years.
In a related move, the Rangers assigned forward Matt Rempe to their AHL affiliate, the Hartford Wolf Pack, on Thursday night. Rempe had limited playing time, totaling just over 11 minutes across two games, and was a healthy scratch for the others.
