New York Rangers: What to do with Brendan Smith?

The cons

One of the biggest negatives in keeping Smith around during the rebuild is of course his contract.

He is signed through until 2021 with an annual cap hit of $4,350,000. The Rangers have $20 million in cap space with which to play with this offseason so they hardly need to scrimp, but that’s not the point.

It is still a lot of money to shell out on a player who won’t log up mega minutes and put up monster offensive production night in and night out.

There is also the bad decision making and sloppy errors that can plague Smith’s game, particularly when he is in his natural habitat on the blueline.

He is 30-years-old so he is starting to see a natural decline in his game too, and that will only continue the deeper he gets into this contract.

Smith is already behind Kevin Shattenkirk, Brady Skjei, Tony DeAngelo and Neal Pionk on the depth chart and, with the boatload of young blueliners in the ilk of Hajek, Lindgren and possibly Yegor Rykov waiting in the wings to play regularly, it will be even harder for Smith to find ice time in the last two years of his contract.

The Verdict

Taking everything into account, some would be tempted to try and buy out Smith if you go on the hard numbers alone, although a buyout would have an impact on the cap for four additional years.

However, the eye test is just as important these days and, although he shouldn’t be considered a huge piece in this rebuild, Smith demonstrated in the second-half of 2018-19 that he can be relied upon as a depth utility player.

Yes, his contract is a tough one to swallow but for the next two years at least Smith is still young enough to make an impact on this roster be that as a bottom line forward or a bottom pair defenseman, and his experience will be vital when it comes to helping the franchise’s deluge of young talent.

As perplexing as he is, there is upside to keeping Brendan Smith on Broadway for now.