New York Rangers will buyout Dan Girardi’s contract

After 11 seasons on Broadway, the New York Rangers are buying out the contract of assistant captain Dan Girardi.

The New York Rangers finally made the move that was heavily anticipated for the past two seasons. Come opening night 2017, Dan Girardi will no longer be on the ice in a New York Rangers uniform.

Although it was the right move and the Rangers needed to do it, the buyout is bittersweet. Girardi was a warrior on the ice for the Rangers throughout his entire career. He was never afraid to make a hit or block a shot, but somehow always managed to stay in the game.

Girardi’s buyout will look like this, according to CapFriendly

The team will save about $3 million in cap space this off-season with the buyout. Couple that with the cap room that Kevin Klein would relinquish if he retires like reports indicate he might, the Rangers will have an extra $6 million in cap space to work with this off-season.

Related Story: Kevin Klein considers retirement

Removing Girardi from the roster will also remove one of Alain Vigneault’s biggest weaknesses from the fold. Our Brandon Cohen had some immediate thoughts on the same wavelength after the buyout.

Team and Girardi Statements

Jeff Gorton talked about how much of a key contributor he’s been over the years.

This is what Girardi had to say…

Girardi might not be a great player anymore, but he is as great a person as you could possibly be. Class personified.

Related Story: The complete off-season plan the Rangers must follow

It will be interesting to see what else the Rangers have in store in what should be a crazy next couple of weeks with the Expansion Draft and the Entry Draft. The team already made a couple other moves today. They re-signed Matt Puempel, making them Expansion Draft compliant, they named Jed Ortmeyer Director of Player Development, they named Steve Eminger a Pro Scout and they brought on Ben Prentiss as the new strength and conditioning coach. You can read those stories here and here.

They re-signed Matt Puempel, making them Expansion Draft compliant, they named Jed Ortmeyer Director of Player Development, they named Steve Eminger a Pro Scout and they brought on Ben Prentiss as the new strength and conditioning coach. You can read those stories here and here.

Next: Five under-the-radar defense targets

This can be the beginning of one of the craziest off-seasons in franchise history. Buckle up.