New York Rangers: The Marc Staal situation

The New York Rangers’ rebuild is well underway, and this past season, they fielded the youngest roster in the NHL. Just as the brass has some decisions with the team’s young free agents, they have a decision to make with alternate captain Marc Staal.

The New York Rangers’ rebuild is in full swing. The team dealt some of the team’s best players at this year’s deadline, acquiring a plethora of draft selections in the coming draft. This process was accelerated this past Tuesday.

As I am sure all Rangers’ fans know at this point, the team received the second overall pick in this summer’s draft, all but securing a chance at either Jack Hughes or Kaapo Kakko. The addition of this level of talent pushes the rebuild in the right direction as either player could step onto the NHL stage right now. That being said, the Rangers have a lot of cap space tied to the second oldest player on the roster: Marc Staal.

Marc Staal has played for the Rangers his entire career. The 32-year-old defenseman has been in the league since 2007 and has faced his fair share of hardship, from concussions to damage to his eye when hit  a puck. He was rewarded in 2015 with a long-term, big money contract, six-years at $5.7 million per year with a full NMC (No Movement Clause). At this point, Staal isn’t very effective anymore as a defenseman, but there may be value in holding on to him. To best explain my thought process, I will be breaking this down into the pros and cons of both sides.

*Disclaimer: I am only looking at the option of buying Staal out due to his NMC. All contract data and calculations are via CapFriendly *

Keep

Pros

The first and most apparent pro for keeping Staal is his veteran presence on the blueline. He is the second longest tenured Ranger on the roster after Henrik Lundqvist.  Since entering the NHL in 2007 he has been the consummate professional and some of the Rangers’ young players could learn a lot from him.

With that being said, he can be a serviceable third pairing defenseman with limited special teams’ ice time. This past season he played 79 games, scored 3 goals and 10 assists, but had awful 5v5 possession numbers.  His Corsi for the season was 43%, the lowest among any defenseman who played over 1,000 minutes.  For him to stay in the lineup, he would have to be willing to step into a mentor’s role and possibly even step aside for younger players.

Cons

The main drawback of keeping Staal aboard is his contract. He is owed a boatload of money relative to his production.  There are very few third pairing defensemen who take up approximately 7.8% of the salary cap.

Compared to the rest of the skaters, Staal is much older than his compatriots. In a way, he has aged out of the squad. As a rebuilding team, roster construction should focus just as much on player development as much as winning, not that Staal necessarily helps that cause. In focusing on winning and playing Staal, the coaching staff is essentially taking a roster spot away from a young defenseman, particularly one of Libor Hajek, Ryan Lindgren, John Gilmour, or even Yegor Rykov, who is set to sign with the Rangers this summer.

Buyout

Pros

The pros for buying out Staal’s contract are pretty straightforward:

1. It would remove a contract from the books. While the Rangers have plenty of contract slots available, the organization should be looking to sign their fair share of entry-level contracts, as well as free agents.  2
2. Removing Staal opens up a space for a prospect. The Rangers have at least three defense prospects who should be vying for a spot with the big club next season. If this is a true rebuild, the Rangers should try to get those players as much game time as possible.
3. It would open up cap space. With two years left on his deal, a buyout would result in a cap hit for four more years.

2019-20   $2.9 million
2020-21   $3.7 million
2021-22   $1.2 million
2022-23   $1.2 million

For this coming season, that is a $2.8 million cap saving. Even though the Rangers aren’t necessarily in a cap crunch, every dollar counts when they could attract top free agents this summer.

Considering that the Rangers are still on the hook for the Dan Girardi buyout for four more years (at $3.6 million next season), it would mean that they would be paying two defenseman over $6 million to not play, but would still have $2.6 million more to spend on salaries or free agents.

Cons

Realistically, there are only two major cons to buying out Staal’s contract. As I have already shown, a buyout would extend his cap hit by two seasons. If the Rangers find themselves ready to compete sooner than expected, that cap hit, while minor could be a factor.

More importantly, the Rangers would be losing a valuable veteran presence.  It’s clear that Coach David Quinn values Staal’s status.  He didn’t sit Staal until late in the season and Staal played more important minutes than any other defenseman, leading all Ranger blueliners in time on the penalty kill.  Other than Quinn’s appreciation for Staal, I’ve already elaborated on this point as a pro for keeping him, so we’ll just move on to the verdict.

Verdict: Keep

While I appreciate the use of analytics and underlying stats, there has to be a proper mixture of math and the eye test when evaluating a player. I firmly believe that Staal was not as bad as his numbers show this past season. That being said, I also believe he is best suited for third pairing duties at this point in his career.

In Staal, the Rangers have a veteran and a mentor, surrounded by young players who need to be molded into NHL regulars, and I think that is worth more than his cap hit over the next two seasons. That being said, the fact that there are only two years remaining on the deal is also a deciding factor in the Rangers holding on to him. This team was the youngest in the league last year, and even with the Rangers getting the second overall pick, I doubt they are ready to truly contend in less than two seasons.