Analysis: Rangers get what they pay for with Dan Girardi extension

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There's nothing flashy about New York Rangers defenseman Dan Girardi. The 29-year-old veteran blue-liner doesn't put up points, and the Rangers don't dominate the puck (quite the opposite, actually) or consistently outscore their opponents when he is on the ice at even-strength. 

But Girardi is as reliable as his game is understated. Year after year, the one-time all-star logs huge minutes against the opposition's best player, and he holds his own. He rarely misses games due to injury (despite blocking an absurd number of shots) or takes penalties considering the difficult assignment he draws on a night-to-night basis.

He's steady, responsible, durable, a stalwart - the model of what NHL teams look for in a stay-at-home defenseman.

On Friday, the Rangers locked up Girardi - who was a pending unrestricted free-agent, and as such had been at the epicenter of trade rumblings for the past few months - with a six-year, $33-million contract extension. The contract will carry an annual cap-hit of $5.5 million.

While locking up defensive defenseman into their mid-thirties can get a bit dicey (Girardi will be 35), that risk appears to be accounted for in the structure of his contract. Girardi will be on a full no movement clause (NMC) for the first three seasons of his lucrative new contract extension, with the NMC weakening over the latter half of the deal:

So the Rangers will maintain some level of flexibility as his contract matures. 

Girardi was headed to the unrestricted free-agent market this summer as indisputably the top defenseman in an environment with the salary cap's upper limit expected to rise significantly. He clearly held the hammer in these negotiations. 

Girardi's $5.5 million annual cap hit will put him safely among the top-20 most expensive defenders in the NHL next season, but safely outside the top-15. That's the middle ground that Girardi should probably occupy. He's a non-star first pairing defender, and a useful one.

Considering the realities of the situation, the Rangers did reasonably well to get Girardi locked in for the future, on a deal that both mitigates some long-term risk, and includes what we might rightly describe as a "reasonable" cap hit.