Per Aaron Ward, Chris Kreider’s camp submitted a $4.75 million salary number heading into Friday’s scheduled arbitration hearing, while Rangers GM Jeff Gorton offered $3.2 million.
I think this will get done prior to the hearing, with the Rangers looking to lock up some of Kreider’s unrestricted free agency years in a deal of at least four or five years, at a number similar to what Washington’s Marcus Johansson got on Wednesday ($4.58 million per for three years).
The Rangers haven’t gone to arbitration since Nik Zherdev in 2009, when they walked away from his award of $3.