New York Rangers: What cap space?
By Steve Paulus
Every article about the New York Rangers talks about cap space and how much the team has. There’s only one problem, there isn’t any.
With the trade for Jacob Trouba, the vaunted “boatload” of New York Rangers cap space went poof! It vanished like a David Copperfield magic trick. With it went any hopes of acquiring a big money free agent and believe it or not, that may be a good thing. That is of course, unless they sign a big money free agent.
2019-20 payroll
According to capfriendly.com, with the salary cap set at $81.5 million, the Rangers have $17.5 million in cap space. With that they have to sign restricted free agents Jacob Trouba, Tony DeAngelo, Pavel Buchnevich and Brendan Lemieux.
Trouba is expected to sign for approximately $8 million per year leaving $9.5 million to be divvied up among the other three Rangers. With all three coming off entry level contracts, the Rangers hold all the cards and could give all three small raises and one year deals.
But if they think that any of them are in their long-term plans, it would make financial sense to sign them to lengthy contracts at a rate that will be considered a bargain in a year or two. Inking Pavel Buchnevich to a six-year $4.5 million deal may make sense, but it leaves the team very little flexibility.
2020-21 payroll
Things don’t get much better the following year. If Trouba and the other RFA’s from 2019-20 max out at $17 million, that would give the Rangers $23 million to spend. That may sound like a lot, but they also have to sign or replace UFA’s Chris Kreider, Vlad Namestnikov, Jimmy Vesey and Jesper Fast. RFA’s include Ryan Strome, Alexandar Georgiev and Boo Nieves.
That group currently makes about $18 million collectively and it will be tough to keep to a number anywhere near that.
2021-22 payroll
Aah. 2021-22. The year that the four big contracts are off the books. Henrik Lundqvist, Kevin Shattenkirk, Brendan Smith and Marc Staal are off payroll, saving the team $25.2 million. Money to burn, right?
Maybe not. Restricted free agents coming off entry level contracts that year include Igor Shesterkin, Filip Chytil, Lias Andersson, Yegor Rykov and Brett Howden. While bridge deals may work for some of these players, the hope has to be that the Rangers will have to ink some of them to long-term, big money deals to keep them on Broadway.
If Shesterkin is the second coming of Lundqvist, is it conceivable that at age 25 he will command a big contract? If Chytil becomes the offensive force he is projected to be, the Rangers will want to lock him for the longest term possible at age 21.
And don’t forget, in 2022-23 they will have to pay Kaapo Kakko and Vitali Kravtsov and they could be commanding Mitch Marner/Auston Matthews kind of dollars.