The New York Rangers have resigned Mats Zuccarello for 4 years at 18 million. This comes after days of unrest between the two sides, with news coming out that the Rangers were making Zucc available for trade ahead of today’s trade deadline. The Rangers and Zuccarello’s representatives had walked away from the table with a gap of 5 million dollars separating the two sides.
This deal will keep him on the Rangers until 2018-19. The deal includes a partial trade protection. They returned to the table Sunday and got a deal done, with the news first being reported by Katie Strang of ESPN New York.
Mats Zuccarello came to the Rangers as an undrafted free agent in 2004 from Norway. Zuccarello is a fan favorite with many fans freaking out over the idea of him being traded away. Mats Zuccarello won the 2013-14 Steven McDonald Extra Effort award given to a Ranger voted on by the fans every year that puts in the extra effort, named after former NYPD officer Steven McDonald who was shot while on duty and was paralyzed as a result of the shooting.
The Rangers would’ve struggled tremendously if they had traded away from the Rangers because the Rangers are one of the best teams in the NHL this season because of their speed and he is a big part of that. Rangers GM Glen Sather has not released a statement on the re-signing of Mats Zuccarello as of the posting of this article. The Rangers are currently in 2nd place in the Metropolitan division, with Zuccarello being a major part of that. Linda Cohn of ESPN and a big New York Rangers fan tweeted, “If Mats Zuccarello was traded, #NYR would be losing a hard worker on the ice and the life of any party off it. #zucc”