After all that Kevin Shattenkirk is bought out

The New York Rangers took advantage of their second window to buy out the contract of defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk.   It will provide much needed relief this season, but there will be a hefty cap hit over the next three years.

The New York Rangers needed cap relief now so they took the path of least resistance and executed the buyout that would save the most money this season.   By buying out Kevin Shattenkirk, $5,516,167  comes off the books immediately.

The buyout was first reported by the Brett Cyrgalis of the New York Post, but has not been confirmed by the Rangers. USA Today reports that they confirmed the report with Shattenkirk’s agent.

With the buyout, the team is now  $1,359,701 under the $81.5 million cap. They still need to sign restricted free agents Brendan Lemieux and Anthony DeAngelo so there is more work to be done.  One sure option will be burying Matt Beleskey in the minor league, a move that will save an additional $1,075,000.

The buyout of Shattenkirk has pretty much eliminated the salary cap issues the team is facing this fall.  He had been due to make $6.650 million for the next two seasons.

With the acquisition of Jacob Trouba and the emergence of Tony DeAngelo, Shattenkirk had dropped in the depth chart and wouldn’t have been guaranteed a role in the starting six.  His loss does mean that team is putting a lot of faith in rookie defenseman Adam Fox.

Perhaps the biggest impact of the buyout is that the team is under no pressure to trade Chris Kreider.  A free agent next season, the Rangers can afford to take time  and work on an extension or trade him at the deadline in February.

The long term impact

While the Shattenkirk buyout solves an immediate problem, it creates another one next season. Shattenkirk’s cap hit for the 2020-21 season will be $6.083 million, a savings of only $566,667.   At this point, the team is looking at about $16 million in cap space for 2020-21 and will have to replace or re-sign unrestricted free agents Chris Kreider, Jesper Fast, Vlad Namestnikov and Greg McKegg.  Alexandar Georgiev, Ryan Strome and Boo Nieves are all restricted free agents and will need new deals.

If prospects like Vitali Kravtsov, Jake Elmer and Morgan Barron are ready to step up, the situation won’t be dire, but  that $6 million in dead salary could come back to haunt them.

The Shattenkirk buyout will cost the Rangers $1.43 million in cap space in each of the following two years as well.  However, in 2021-22 the Blueshirts will see Henrik Lundqvist, Marc Staal and Brendan Smith coming off the books so the Shattenkirk hit won’t be onerous.

Two doomed years

Things were looking up when Westchester native Kevin Shattenkirk signed a team-friendly four year deal as the marquee free agent in the summer of 2017.    Considered one of the best power play quarterbacks in the league, he took less money to play for the team he had rooted for as a kid.

His Ranger career was doomed by a knee injury he suffered in the first month of his first season.  Playing on a torn meniscus, Shattenkirk’s play deteriorated and instead of being the final piece of a Stanley Cup contending puzzle, he became a dead weight on a team embarking on a massive rebuild.

Coming back from the injury and playing for his old college coach David Quinn, Shattenkirk rebounded to some degree last season, but he lost his top role on the power play to Tony DeAngelo and faced an uncertain season this fall.

There is no doubt that Shattenkirk’s status as a top six defenseman on this team was in jeopardy, but it’s disappointing that the team couldn’t find a taker for him in a trade.  As a bargain UFA, he could find himself playing an important role for a contending team this season.

While Shattenkirk has been the target of much derision from Ranger fans, he has to get some credit for wanting to play for the Rangers and that he took less money to do it.  He also played almost half a season on a hobbled knee and he should get some props for that as well.

By all reports, he was a good teammate and a positive representative for the team with his “Kevin Shattenkirk Kancer Jam” charity effort. He wants to remain in the region, so don’t be surprised if he surfaces with another metropolitan area team on a favorable contract.