While John Tavares shook up the NHL and the other dominoes fell around him, the Rangers spent the first day of free agency re-signing their own restricted free agent forward Vladislav Namestnikov to a two-year, reported $8-million contract and signing restricted free agent defenseman Fredrik Claesson from the Senators to a one-year deal worth a reported $700,000.
Namestnikov, 25, was originally acquired by the Rangers in the trade deadline deal that sent captain Ryan McDonagh and forward J.T. Miller to the Lightning and brought back junior prospects Brett Howden and Libor Hajek and a first-round pick, which the Rangers used to select Swedish defenseman Nils Lundkvist at last weekend’s NHL Draft.