New York Rangers captain Ryan McDonagh is signed through the 2018-19 season. Some players would already worried about their long-term future. But McDonagh isn’t like other players.
The New York Rangers have a lot of contracts to look at as they look ahead to the 2018-19 season. The one that may top the list is Ryan McDonagh’s deal, which expires at the end of next season.
The contract situation McDonagh is currently in is nothing new to the organization. Henrik Lundqvist, Marc Staal, and former Ranger Dan Girardi all entered their final contract year and all were re-signed during that year.
Ryan McDonagh signed this current deal back in 2013, his first contract after his entry-level deal. It was a surprise that at only 23 years-old he would sign a seven-year deal so early in his career, but McDonagh told the New York Post’s Larry Brooks that there was a good reason that went with the contract. “I’d just seen Marc get hit in the face where you couldn’t know if he was going to be able to keep playing,” McDonagh said, referring to the night of March 5, 2013, when Staal’s career was imperiled after he was struck by Jakub Voracek’s deflection of a Kimmo Timonen slap shot. “I wanted the security that came with a longer deal. … I’ve never looked back and thought that I should have done it differently. It was a fair deal for me. I’ve never been unhappy with it.”
McDonagh has been a workhorse for most of his career. He has led the Rangers in ice time for five straight seasons, including the current campaign, with 760 minutes and counting.
Though he has not scored a goal, he has registered 18 assists and is plus-11. Part of the reason his offensive production has decreased this year may be that he has had a revolving door of partners including Staal, Anthony DeAngelo, and Nick Holden. He is still one of the fastest skaters on the team, behind Michael Grabner, as you can see on this assist to J.T. Miller against Boston.
Decisions will have to be made over the next year-and-a-half, but one thing we already know is that McDonagh will leave it all on the ice and let the contract situation play out between his agent and the organization.
“You know what? I feel like I’ve got a great situation here, I love it both on and off the ice, and there’s no point at all in speculating about what might be down the road,” he told Brooks. “Who knows what the situation is going to be?”
