Kennedy the Nail in Coffin for Avery?

If I’ve mentioned it once I’ve mentioned it a hundred times, the New York Rangers do not have the room to keep signing players and promote our youth. That is, unless you get rid of people.

Like I said a month ago:

"This also make you wonder, where is this room for the new younger players to come up an play? With this trade (and other previous moves), it has seemed to fill most available spots. Which leads to believe that Mr. Sather is not even close to done. Personally, I can see Michal Rozsival, Sean Avery, or Brian Boyle being traded to free up room and even more cap space. I know most people don’t want to see Avery go, but he has a $1.938 hit against the cap and his role has kind of been filled with an almost as expensive but more painful bruiser in Derek Boogard. Now I’m not saying I want him gone, because I love that he gets under the other team’s skin and pushes all their buttons, I’m just saying I CAN SEE it happening."

Flash-forward back to now, and I’m reading all over the place about thoughts of Sean Avery and Brian Boyle not making this year’s squad. The talk of trading Michal Rozsival has died down, but ideas of an Avery-less Rangers is becoming more prominent. This saddens most Ranger fans as he quickly became a fan favorite and was even welcomed back with open arms after leaving for the Dallas Stars in search of (literally) greener pastures.

Signs have been pointing to this for awhile. I’m assuming that effort has been taken away from trading Rozsival as its quite clear we do not have an answer for our riddled defense. Everyone knows that coach John Tortorella and Avery have butt heads to the point where he’s had Ave’s on a short leash. And we all know what Derek Boogaard was signed for. With all of the money that’s floating around on this team, Avery is the most expensive question on the roster.

When it comes to Boyle, I think we can all agree his experiment is over. Although he was a shot in the dark, he was given his chances and his time is done on the Rangers. Its only a matter of time before Boyle is either traded or waived. Honestly, I think waived is the more than likely option and we’ll see him in Hartford.

Don’t believe me? Well here comes the math:
Tim Kennedy‘s acquisition of $550K puts them further over the unneeded mark. It also shows that the team is moving towards younger and smaller.
Knowing the salary cap is $59.4 million and going currently with the team consisting of Gaborik, Drury, Frolov, Callahan, Dubinsky, Avery, Prospal, Todd White, Mats Zuccarello-Aasen, Boogaard, Christensen, Anisimov, Boyle, Prust, Tim Kennedy, Redden, Rozsival, Steve Eminger, Girardi, Gilroy, Del Zotto, Lundqvist and Biron, it puts the roster at a $61,646,667 cap hit.
Lets take off $2 million for the difference between Redden going to Hartford and Staal being eventually signed at $4.5 mil (obviously a guess). Now we’re at $59.646667 mil. Logically we waive Boyle and we’re there, but no team is going stay just under cap. They all want wiggle room.
That’s where Avery comes in. Rozsival could also be an option, but the idea of replacing Rozi is a little steep at this moment. Yes, we have a plethora of young talent, as I keep mentioning, but not many of them have experience. Avery’s cap hit is $1,937,500 and that sure gives the much needed wiggle room we need. Rozi’s $5 million hit would of course be much nicer to see off the team, but the odds of that happening anytime soon are unlikely. Look for trade rumors to resurface around the trade deadline.

I’d like to say Torts has a large hand in what will happen, but he’s on the hot seat himself, so its all Slats. The object of course is to win and in New York , the Glen Sather/Rangers’ philosophy is “Quick Fix”.

*All numbers acquired from  Cap Geek