The New York Rangers signed Barclay Goodrow, their unrestricted free agent forward, to a six-year contract worth $21.6 million, or $3.6 million per season. This contract carries him through the 2026-27 season. Frank Seravalli of The Daily Faceoff first reported the news.
Hearing #NYR have made significant progress with newly acquired forward Barclay Goodrow.
Not finalized. Expectation is Goodrow will be a Blueshirt once the signing moratorium is lifted with a 6-year deal in $3.6m AAV range. @DFOHockey
— Frank Seravalli (@frank_seravalli) July 19, 2021
UPDATE: The team made the contract official Thursday afternoon, with the terms of the deal not being made public yet.
It’s a 𝑮𝒐𝒐𝒅 day on Broadway. 😎
Welcome to #NYR, Barclay! pic.twitter.com/6eMq3Oa00I
— New York Rangers (@NYRangers) July 22, 2021
Barclay Goodrow Signed By Rangers
Over his seven-year NHL career, Goodrow played between the San Jose Sharks and Tampa Bay Lightning. Originally an undrafted forward, Goodrow debuted with the Sharks in 2014-15. He signed with San Jose after a strong final year of junior hockey the year prior. In 2019-20, the Sharks traded Goodrow to the Lightning, where he won the Stanley Cup in each of the last two seasons.
Across the start of his career, Goodrow scored 32 goals and 61 assists for 93 total points in 331 games. Last year, he scored 6 goals and 14 assists for 20 points in 55 contests. He’s never reached double-digits in goals, but racked up 553 career hits and 220 blocked shots. His solid two-way game made him a regular in the lineup when healthy.
What This Means for the Future
Getting Goodrow signed provides hard-working, winning experience to the lineup in New York. Though he only averages 12:42 in ice time across his career, that number reached 14:47 on average over the last two years in Tampa Bay. The 27-year old is a player reaching the prime of his playing career, and he plays the kind of game that is a necessity on winning lineups. Teams need depth to win in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, and Goodrow embodies that perfectly. His ice time average reaches even higher peaks in the postseason, where he logged 17:46 per game over the last two Championship years with the Lightning. That’s nearly three minutes more per night than he gets in the regular season.
The Rangers own a ton of young talent, having taken Alexis Lafreniere and Kaapo Kakko at 1st and 2nd overall, respectively, over the last two seasons. Plus they have Artemi Panarin, Chris Kreider, Ryan Strome, Mika Zibanejad, and RFA Pavel Buchnevich to help round out a deep offensive corps. Adam Fox just won the Norris Trophy on their blueline. Add Jacob Trouba and K’Andre Miller and there’s three excellent NHL defecemen on this lineup, too. None of the aforementioned forwards or defencemen are available to the Seattle Kraken in expansion. Alexandar Georgiev is still under contract in net, plus Igor Shesterkin is an RFA; both are exempt from the expansion draft as well. Now, Barclay Goodrow signed to provide winning experience and hard-nosed play on the bottom half of the lineup.
This team should be taking the next step and fight for a playoff spot next year. Should they get in, Goodrow’s value will really shine. Locking him up for such a long term came at a surprise, but its good certainty at a mid-range pay grade. It appears Goodrow believes the Rangers are entering their Cup window, and wants to be there for it all.
