I would not be surprised to see the Rangers sign some free agents next offseason, but I would be surprised if they are near the ceiling at the point where all of Chytil, Andersson, Howden, Hajek, Lindgren come off their entry level deals in 2021. (should some not slide) or the next year assuming all their 2018 draftees have their entry level end that year.
What would be the point to drafting/trading for all those prospects if they are going to be capped out of re-signing them should any of them be worthy of long term deal right off their entry level.
They do lose some contracts in 2021 and some big ones, Lundqvist, Shattenkirk, Smith, Staal so they will have room but in the mean time there are some other contracts that will come up to be signed, Buchnevich, maybe ADA Poink, Georgiev, if they extend Kreider, Hayes Fast? sign their KHL prospects.
Currently for the 2020-21 season they are projected to have spent only ~37M in cap space. only at ~12m for the 2021-22 season. They are going to have to spend some cap space on something even with all those prospect/rfa signing in between. There seems to be a cap gap, if all their pending UFAs between now and 2020 and 2021 are gone, and not replaced with some cap hits that are above entry levels/bridge deals, they are going to be at or below the floor. Not that it is a bad thing, there are always ways to get to the floor. Perhaps they envision selling while taking back some cap dumps for the following season or extending more players than I envision?
I have never been a fan of the UFA market, but it kind of looks like the Rangers may use it in some fashion. Whether they go high end or just get more stop gaps I think will depend on how this season goes in term of development from the youth, yet I'm not sure those answers will be all that definitive even after this season.