The Rangers signed forward Matt Puempel to a one-year, $725,000 contract on Wednesday, meaning they now meet the requirements for players they need to expose in the expansion draft and will avoid any punishment.
Along with Michael Grabner, the Blueshirts needed one more forward to expose who was signed for next season and met certain games-played requirements. Assuming they are going to protect restricted free agent Mika Zibanejad, that meant they had to ink one of their other three restricted free agents in Puempel, Oscar Lindberg or Jesper Fast.
The trio of Puempel, Lindberg and Fast each will be eligible to be picked by the Vegas Golden Knights when the draft takes place on June 21.