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New York Rangers left wing Will Cuylle (50) is greeted by New York Rangers defenseman Braden Schneider (4) after he scores a goal. Charles Wenzelberg \/ New York Post<\/p>\nBraden Schneider knows there\u2019s nothing he can do until the decisions arrive. But once the Rangers season ends next week, the 24-year-old defenseman and former first-round pick will become a restricted free agent.\u00a0<\/p>\n
That means he could receive a qualifying offer worth $2.64 million. That means he could be eligible to sign an offer sheet or sign a deal with the Rangers \u2014 or even get traded, depending on how the different variables fall into place. <\/p>\n
But even amid those unknowns, Schneider \u201cfor sure\u201d hopes something works out to keep him with the Blueshirts long term.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel like being a Ranger is something that I\u2019m very proud of and I love being,\u201d Schneider told The Post after practice Friday in Tarrytown ahead of a season-closing road trip, \u201cand obviously they gave me my opportunity to be an NHLer. I feel I\u2019ve grown a lot as a person and a player, and still got a lot of growing to do, for sure, but it\u2019s something that, yeah, it would be great if that was the case. But we\u2019ll see what happens.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
It\u2019s the second consecutive season when the Rangers are approaching this juncture with a young defenseman. Last year, it was K\u2019Andre Miller, who was tendered the qualifying offer and then traded to the Hurricanes before inking an eight-year deal. <\/p>\n
When Miller navigated restricted free agency last year, Schneider paid attention, he said. He knew that was going to be him once the 2025-26 season concluded. Schneider, who has struggled at times this year while recording two goals and 18 points offensively, has recently skated with rookie Drew Fortescue.\u00a0<\/p>\n
New York Rangers left wing Will Cuylle (50) is greeted by New York Rangers defenseman Braden Schneider (4) after he scores a goal. Charles Wenzelberg \/ New York Post<\/p>\n
Entering next season, the Blueshirts have Adam Fox, Vladislav Gavrikov, Will Borgen, Matthew Robertson, Urho Vaakanainen and now Fortescue under contract. But with the Rangers in the middle of a rebuild, anything can change. <\/p>\n
Fox\u2019s cryptic comments in February \u2014 about delaying conversations about his future until the offseason \u2014 loom. Vaakanainen has fallen out of their regular defensive pairings. Fortescue could start the 2026-27 campaign with AHL Hartford after his first taste of NHL life.\u00a0<\/p>\n
There could be turnover on the blue line, and among the pressing questions the Rangers need to answer \u2014 something that directly correlates to the amount of upheaval they\u2019ll encounter \u2014 is the future of Schneider.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously, you talk to guys and ask kinda what it\u2019s all about,\u201d Schneider said of being a restricted free agent. \u201cBut \u2026 it\u2019s something that really, until we get to it, it\u2019s \u2014 not much I can do about it but keep playing good hockey. And I feel like down the stretch, that\u2019s something I\u2019ve been doing, and yeah, we\u2019ll see what happens. I\u2019m excited to see how it pans out.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\tRead the expert take on the Blueshirts\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
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\t\t\t\t\t\tThank you\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
Fox was named the Rangers\u2019 nominee for the 2025-26 King Clancy Memorial Trophy, which is given annually to the NHL player who \u201cbest exemplifies leadership qualities on and off the ice and has made a noteworthy humanitarian contribution in his community.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Both of the Rangers\u2019 prospects whose teams made the Frozen Four \u2014 North Dakota State defenseman EJ Emery (2024 first-round pick) and Michigan forward Malcolm Spencer (2025 second-round pick \u2014 were eliminated in the national semifinals Thursday night.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Braden Schneider knows there\u2019s nothing he can do until the decisions arrive. But once the Rangers season ends…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":550135,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5111],"tags":[5169,5,3328,35,5190,5193,4,36,43],"class_list":{"0":"post-550134","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-rangers","8":"tag-braden-schneider","9":"tag-hockey","10":"tag-new-york","11":"tag-new-york-rangers","12":"tag-newyork","13":"tag-newyorkrangers","14":"tag-nhl","15":"tag-rangers","16":"tag-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116384906460125659","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/550134","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=550134"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/550134\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/550135"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=550134"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=550134"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=550134"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}