Over the next four years, the New York Rangers will have over a dozen players with expiring entry level contracts. That’s one of the results of rebuilding an organization. If those players are as good as the Rangers hope, the team will be in big trouble.
While the NHL rules are pretty restrictive when it comes to free agency, the way teams are treating restricted free agents and the way that the players are considering their RFA contracts has changed the whole NHL financial structure.
NHL rules are that a player cannot be an unrestricted free agent until he turns 27 years old or has played seven years in the NHL.