Total: $10.0625M
It’s not very often that a team basically has more than a third of their roster on entry-level deals but that’s the case here. The total bonuses actually exceed the 7.5% bonus cushion so there is a dead cap charge of $3.95M on the books as things stand and it’s extremely rare for a team to be in that situation but that just shows how many talented youngsters the Rangers have.
Lafreniere was the top pick of the draft back in October and is expected to step into a top-six role right away (or very soon after). As someone that should make a sizable impact right away, he could easily jump into the $7M or more range on his next contract. Kakko, the second-overall pick in 2019, had a difficult rookie season. That could play a role in talks for his next deal depending on how 2020-21 goes. If he takes off, then like Lafreniere, he could bypass the bridge contract altogether and go straight to top money. If he doesn’t, then the likelihood of a short-term second deal