Five bad contracts that the New York Rangers should trade for
There are so many teams being anchored down by some bad contracts. So why should the New York Rangers come to their rescue and take away other teams’ albatross deals?
The offseason provides a chance for teams to readjust their rosters so they could be even stronger for the next season. This means figuring out what to do with some less than desirable contracts. Expensive, long-term deals given to players that have not produced to their expectations since can really weigh a team down in this salary cap era. One or two bad contracts on a team could really stranglehold them, taking away the team’s room to grow, or worse, setting them back.
That is where the New York Rangers come in.
The Rangers are in the early stages of their rebuild where they need acquire as many assets as possible. Only the Islanders and the Hurricanes have less money on the books for the 2018-19 season than the Blueshirts at this point. Using that cap space as an asset to acquire more picks/prospects for bad contracts is a very smart way to stock up.
The Rangers did this at the trade deadline by taking on Matt Beleskey’s contract. Instead of just acquiring a first round pick and Ryan Lindgren for Rick Nash, the Rangers got the Bruins to throw in Ryan Spooner in exchange for taking half of Beleskey’s cap hit for the next two seasons.
I took a look around the league to find a few awful contracts that teams may try to move away from this offseason. Here are five players the Rangers could add to bolster their asset pool.
Bobby Ryan
The former second-overall pick of the 2005 NHL Entry Draft was having a great career up until about two years ago. Coincidentally, Ryan signed a seven year contract worth $50.7 million with the Senators just three years ago.
How bad have Ryan’s past two seasons been? He has skated in 124 games and has tallied just 24 goals and 34 assists. That’s .47 points per game.
At first glance, those numbers aren’t terrible, but for the $7.25 million a year he is making, that is not even close to acceptable.
Ryan is also a complete defensive liability. He turns over the puck a lot. He has 64 giveaways over the last two season, which is just over half a giveaway a game.
With the Senators owner Eugene Melnyk looking to move salary, if he could find a taker for Ryan, expect a move to be made. Premium assets are probably available in return. With the Senators owning the number four pick, maybe a Ryan and four for the Rangers’ ninth pick is something that they’d think about.
He does have a no-movement clause, but it is hard to imagine he’d use it to block a trade to New York.
Marian Gaborik
Let’s stay in Canada’s capital for this next one.
Former Ranger Marian Gaborik was given a nightmare contract after he won the Stanley Cup with the Los Angeles Kings in 2014. His seven year, $34.1 million contract was dealt to the Senators just before the trade deadline for an even worse contract, that of Dion Phaneuf. The Senators had to fork over prospect Nick Shore while retaining $1.75 of Phaneuf’s deal to make it even.
Injuries have always been a problem for Gaborik, but they have been piling up at a ridiculous rate over the last few seasons. He has played 60 games in a season just once since 2011-12 and at age 36, his health won’t be getting any better.
The future Hall of Famer has only tallied a total of 33 goals and 31 assists over the last three seasons. He has clearly lost a step and is a shell of his former self.
If the Senators want to move him to the Rangers, they wouldn’t need to give up an asset as significant as the one they’d need to move in a Bobby Ryan trade, but it would still be significant enough for it to be worth the Rangers’ while.
Brandon Dubinsky
On the subject of former Rangers, Brandon Dubinsky could really use a change of scenery.
The 2017-18 campaign was one to forget for the proud Dubinsky. It started in October when John Tortorella stripped the “A” off of his jersey.
The 12-year NHL veteran (wow, it’s been that long…) suffered an orbital bone fracture in December. The team eventually sent him home to deal with a personal matter that the team considered “career-threatening,” according to The Athletic.
Dubinsky had the worst season of his career, finishing with just six goals and 10 assists in 62 games. Dubinsky still played a lot of difficult defensive minutes, starting 63.3 percent of his shifts in the defensive zone.
He still has another three years at $5.8 million left on his deal. While he may not be the player the Rangers dealt in the Rick Nash trade six years ago, Dubinsky would provide more than just a bad contract to garner more assets for the Blueshirts. He’d be a valuable leader in a room void of veterans. He could also be a great defensive forward and penalty killer for a team who’s all around defensive game has been worse than just pathetic lately.
Milan Lucic
Remember when Milan Lucic was an intimidating three zone player? Well, those days are over.
Lucic has become one of the slowest skaters in the NHL. He’s somehow only 29 years old (although he will turn 30 in June) and has already lost a step.
After a strong 2016-17 season where he tallied 23 goals and 50 points with Edmonton, Lucic fell off big time in 2017-18. He only notched 10 goals and 24 assists and gave the puck away 76 times! That tied for 30th in the NHL.
Lucic has another five years on his contract worth $6 million annually. That’s a lot of money over a lot of years to take on. The Rangers would be acquiring a ton of assets, maybe even the 10th pick in this year’s draft, to take on this contract (obviously they’d also have to give the Oilers something else in this scenario).
Lucic isn’t built for today’s NHL. He simply isn’t fast enough. But Jeff Gorton should give Peter Chiarelli a call about Lucic to see what he would give to let him go. Who knows? if he gave up Taylor Hall for a second pair defenseman, maybe he’d give up assets of value to rid themselves of the Vancouver native.
Loui Eriksson
With the retirement of the Sedin twins, nobody on the Vancouver Canucks makes as much money per year as Loui Eriksson. Eriksson signed a six year, $36 million contract with the Canucks on July 1, 2016 after scoring 30 with the Boston Bruins the year prior. The Bruins were smart to stay away from Eriksson, who’s best days were behind him.
Since signing his massive contract, Eriksson has been brutal. He has played just 115 of 164 possible games due to a myriad of injuries. He has yet to hit the 25 point mark in a season in Vancouver. With a young team on the come up, the Canucks could survive if they kept the remaining four years on their cap. The Rangers should still do their due diligence here, though.
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For what it’s worth, Eriksson had a solid Corsi of 49.5 on one of the worst puck possession teams in the NHL last season. Maybe he could provide sneaky value if the Rangers could pry his contract, along with other assets, from Canucks general manager Jim Benning.