Compher is signed for as much as he is as he since he is a guy that can move up and down the lineup if injuries or struggles were to occur.

Sounds a lot like how Goodrow is described

Yeah but Goodrow doesn't score. Sometimes just feels like a body out there. Need some more scoring punch. It's been the rangers issue the past two years, struggles of depth scoring

Laf and his agent hold out, MTL offersheets 1 year × $4,290,124 compensation of a 2nd round pick, what's next? Playing Devils advocate but you don't even have cap space to activate P. Kane off of LTIR, this roster as constructed leaves you susceptible to offersheets.

Yeah, but compher signing would be after the laf and miller deals are done, so your point is kind of moot. And yes, a little bit, but the first deals the rangers need to get done are their rfa so that they can go into free agency with an amount they can spend. after i did the rfa's, i had about 6.5 million to sign guys. Kane will also be out for the first 2-3 months of the season, so his whole cap hit won't go against the cap anyways, and cuylle would probably be sent back down (essentially equaling kane's remaining contract)

If I am Lafreniere (or Lafreniere's agent) I'm not signing that contract knowing I could get more from an offersheet. Certainly not signing before Free Agency without exploring the market.

And Compher (or other UFA's) aren't waiting for the Rangers to get a deal with Lafreniere before signing and risk missing out on the free agent market.

You're right the rangers need to get the Lafreniere situation resolved before free agency, I'm just saying I don't think that deal gets it done.

The deal for laffy is a bridge deal (so he can sign a long-term contract after, same with miller), and to be honest, his production has not warranted a larger contract. His production went down from this year compared to last. As for compher, it doesn't need to be him specifically, but a similar type player or ilk of player is what I was looking for. Maybe donskoi on the cheap to potentially bounce back for a year, etc.

His production didn't go down, he posted the highest P/60 of his career and his highest points total as well, all while not getting much powerplay opportunity despite being a 1st overall pick. His 5v5 production is fine, if he had more powerplay time he would be a 50 point player at 21 years old, that's worth more than $2.1M, especially given he plays physical and is a net positive GF%.

In NY, he's a 2nd PP unit middle 6 winger making $2.1M, in MTL (with an offersheet around $4M) he's playing top 6 minutes likely with Suzuki and Caufield while playing 1st line PP. If I'm his agent, I urge him to leverage an offersheet into getting a better contract or a better situation on a rebuilding team where he will get more minutes and boost his value.

Edit: The Rangers haven't done him any favors so far, I'd look to how Dach was able to take a big step in MTL and try and arrange the same for my client, if nothing else at least you leveraged a better contract.

Yeah, that's why I was saying you can see where laffy's contract ends up, if it's at 3 million great, 3.5 even better... for him. In my opinion, if the contract goes more, then you trade him rather than let him being offer-sheeted. Whatever it ends up being, if his contract is of greater value than expected here, that's where the compher contract goes down and the player probably changes to a high risk, high reward type of player like donskoi. In my opinion, 2.5 is where he should max out on a bridge deal, and I think most rangers fans will agree after watching him play these past couple of years.

Edit: Laffy also played on the second line for like 60 games with panarin and trochek. That's why the rangers went out and traded for tank and kane. If him and kakko would have been good enough there in first and second line positions, then there would have been no need to trade for either of them at the deadline.