Rangers act quickly with Ryan Lindgren’s $9 million contract

More On: adam fox

The Post’s Larry Brooks reported that the deal is worth $9 million with an average annual value of $3 million.

Defenseman Ryan Lindgren, who became a restricted free agent at the conclusion of this season, signed a three-year extension with the Rangers on Monday, the team announced.

The Post’s Larry Brooks reported that the deal is worth $9 million with an average annual value of $3 million.

After Lindgren was named the Players’ Player award winner, as voted on by his teammates, new president and general manager Chris Drury wasted no time in locking the 23-year-old defenseman down.

“It’s a huge honor,” Lindgren said Monday of the award, which recognizes the Ranger who “best exemplifies what it means to be a team player.”

“Having guys on the team vote for it. Obviously there’s a lot of guys that could have easily won this award. But I’m very honored and it definitely means a lot to me. It’s very special, very cool to hear I won that and very excited.”

Lindgren missed the last five games of the season after suffering an upper-body injury in a collision with Islanders forward Cal Clutterbuck in the 4-0 loss on April 29. He said he is “feeling better and better each day” and is excited to train in the offseason.

In 51 games this season, Lindgren scored one goal and dished 15 assists with 35 penalty minutes.

The Rangers signed defenseman Ryan Lindgren to a three-year, $9 million contract.

Since his call up from AHL Hartford in 2019-20, Lindgren and Adam Fox have forged a lethal top defensive pairing. With Fox’s offensive skill and Lindgren’s physicality, the duo quickly became head coach David Quinn’s go-to D pair to deploy against top lines.

In addition to his productivity with Fox, Lindgren was a reliable penalty killer. He ranked second on the team in average shorthanded ice time (2:30) and currently ranks fifth in the NHL (minimum 115:00 shorthanded ice time) in power-play goals against per 60 minutes (4.22) this season.

Lindgren established career-highs in several categories this season. He led the team with a plus-20 rating and recorded 98 hits, which marked a personal best. The Minnesota native was one of just four Rangers who posted 90 or more hits and 50 or more blocked shots this season.

Along with the Players’ Player award, the Rangers released the other two team awards as voted on by members of the media.

Fox was named the most valuable player, making him the first Ranger to win the award in one of his first two seasons in the NHL since Henrik Lundqvist in 2006-07. He is also the first Rangers skater to do so since Brian Leetch in 1988-89.

The 23-year-old joins Leetch, Lundqvist, Mark Messier, Wayne Gretzky, Adam Graves and Mika Zibanejad as the only players to win both the Steven McDonald Extra Effort award and team MVP in the same season.

The John Halligan Good Guy Award, which is presented to a player for his cooperation with the media throughout the season, was given to defenseman Brendan Smith.

Set to become an unrestricted free agent, Smith has maintained that he hopes to stay with the Rangers.

“I love being a Ranger,” he said. “If that’s in the cards, I will strongly think about that. Even [if it’s not] top four minutes, to me, it doesn’t matter.”

Defenseman Jacob Trouba, who missed the final 10 games of the season with a presumed concussion he sustained on a hit from Islanders forward Matt Martin, said his head was “fine,” but there was “another little injury that’s lurking.”

The 27-year-old began skating with the team toward the end of the season, but was shut down once the Rangers were eliminated from playoff contention because management didn’t want to “risk it.”

This story originally appeared on: NyPost - Author:Mollie Walker