The waiting is over. The Will Cuylle contract extension is finalized, with the New York Rangers signing Cuylle to a 2 year contract extension with a $3.9 million cap hit. All this waiting for a bridge deal is very disappointing since the Rangers have some cap space to sign him long term. However it’s worth noting Cuylle probably didn’t want a long term extension since the Rangers can’t really go beyond $6 million and Cuylle is betting on himself and a much larger cap ceiling in two years.
Even the pending K’Andre Miller trade wasn’t going to fetch enough cap space to ensure the Rangers could re-sign Cuylle. Instead they have to continue their bridge deal trend with forwards, choosing to pay more in the future as opposed to cost certainty now.
The important thing is the Will Cuylle contract extension prevents an offer sheet, which was clearly on Drury’s mind. How real that threat was will never be known, but Carolina was looking at an offer sheet for Miller, so perhaps there was some additional risk we haven’t been made aware of.
