If they bridge Skjei (or Hayes for that matter) and leave him with one RFA year left, he could just at that point, sign his qualifier (which if you guys are correct will be about what he'd get for that year anyway by signing longer term then), or go through arbitration, take the one year and in either case become a UFA the year after.
Do they really want to take that chance or just sign him now likely through his prime, buying up some UFA years, save a little on the back end of the cap hit, while front loading the deal so it's more attractive on the trade market for certain teams?
I guess I must be missing something but bridging Skjei or Hayes seems to me like there is no upside to doing so other than they save some cap space now, when essentially they don't need it, and if they do need it within the next year or two they could likely trade either of those players at that time to gain that space and get an pretty fair haul back in the process.
Hypothetically say next off-season they need that space, is Skjei or Hayes on a 5 year ~25M total deal that is at that point a 4 year deal that has an AVV of ~5M but a total salary left of say 18M really going to be something that is not attractive to several teams versus them spending possibly more in real money or in AVV by going the UFA route for a similar player, should that player even want to sign with them?
Term and a reduced salary per cap hit is a thing the Rangers can get, two things that are also attractive to certain teams that have trouble in either or both of those areas. They've already shown it can be done with both Stepan and Brassard, the NHL's landscape has not changed that much since those moves.
