What cap issues are facing the Rangers’ Met Division rivals?

The New York Rangers reside in the ultra-competitive Metropolitan Division with cap issues a big problem for most teams

The projected flat salary cap for the next season presents opportunities for teams with cap space and a nightmare for teams close to the cap maximum.  The New York Rangers are in the middle, with some cap space, but not enough to go wild.  Still, it’s an opportunity to cause some damage for rivals in the tough Met Division.

Over the last few days we’ve looked at the salary cap situation for teams in the Atlantic, Central and Pacific Divisions.  Trades within a division are rare, but the salary cap may force teams to make deals with trading partners they don’t usually consider.  A more likely scenario is teams will not make qualifying offers to Restricted Free Agents (RFA’s), another opportunity for a team like the Rangers.

The good news is the Rangers do have some cap space, but they have their own RFA’s to sign and Unrestricted Free Agents (UFA’s) to replace.  Right now, the Blueshirts will have $13.5 million in cap space and they will need all of it.  However, there are buyout or retirement opportunities (mostly involving Henrik Lundqvist) that could free up as much as $5 million incap space.

Following the loss to Carolina, General Manager Jeff Gorton and President John Davidson acknowledged that the team has needs that must be addressed.  They are thin on defense and they both feel that the team needs to be “harder” to play against.

Here is a team by team look at the Rangers’ Metropolitan Division rivals  and the cap situation for each team.  All salary cap data is courtesy of capfriendly.com and cap space for 2020-21 is projected.

Carolina Hurricanes – Cap space $9,149,334

Key UFA’s:
Justin Williams, Right wing
Joel Edmundson, Left defense
Sami Vatanen, Right defense
Trevor van Riemsdyk, Right defense

Key RFA’s:
Warren Foegele, Left wing (arbitration eligible)
Haydn Fleury, Left defense (arbitration eligible)

Ah, our favorite team, the Carolina Hurricanes.  They’ve got an excellent young core, most locked in for years. The one young star they need to consider is Andrei Svechnikov who will be looking for a new deal in a year.   As it stands, they are hard against the cap ceiling and will lose some players.

While 38 year old Justin Williams may decide to hang up his skates after this season, they will still need to get their RFA’s under contract with both Warren Foegele and Haydn Fleury eligible for arbitration.   There is no way that they will be able to do that and re-sign their three UFA defensemen.

The Rangers would love to poach Joel Edmundson, a rock solid left defedner who is in his prime at age 27.  He will likely want a long term deal, something the Blueshirts probably are not able to commit to.  Their other UFA’s are not what the Rangers need.

After trading Brady Skjei and acquiring Adam Fox, it’s doubtful that the Rangers and Hurricanes will go to the well again, especially after the qualifier series.  The Hurricanes also will be one of the teams that the Rangers will be fighting to get into the playoffs so a deal is doubtful.

Columbus Blue Jackets – Cap space $5,202,500

Key UFA’s: None

Key RFA’s:
Pierre Luc-Dubois, Center
Josh Anderson, Right wing (arbitration eligible)
Devin Shore, Left wing-center  (arbitration eligible)
Ryan MacInnis, Center (arbitration eligible)
Kevin Stenlund, Right wing
Jakob Lilja, Left wing (arbitration eligible)
Marko Dano, Center (arbitration eligible)
Gabriel Carlsson, Left defense
Vladislav Gavrikov, Left defense

The Blue Jackets keep surprising.  After losing four key free agents in the off-season, they were written off as a playoff contender.  Yet, here they are, battling the Tampa Bay Lightning in the first round.  John Tortorella has shown again that he is one of the best coaches in the NHL.

The Blue Jackets don’t have a lot of cap space and they have no UFA’s to try to re-sign.  However, they have nine key RFA’s with a number of them eligible for arbitration.  It would be in their best interest to sign Pierre-Luc Dubois to a long term deal, but may be unable to do that.  The most interesting  negotiation will be with Josh Anderson.  The 26 year old winger made $1.85 million last season, considered a bargain after he scored 27 goals in 2018-19.  His season went south this year as he scored only one goal and four points and finished the season on Injured Reserve with an injured shoulder. Not great stats for an arbitration hearing.

Two other RFA’s who are seeing regular action are Devin Shore (arbitration eligible) and defenseman Vladislav Gavrikov.   With only $5 million in cap space, the Blue Jackets will be hardpressed to pay them all and are vulnerable to an offer sheet to a player like Dubois.

It’s hard to see the Rangers dealing with Columbus, especially if it helps relieve their cap issues.

New Jersey Devils – Cap space $25,320,001

Key UFA’s:
Kevin Rooney, Right wing
Fredrik Claesson, Left defense
Dakota Mermis, Right defense

Key RFA’s:
Jesper Bratt, Left wing
John Hayden, Center-wing (arbitration eligible)
Joseph Anderson, Right wing
Mirco Mueller, Left defense
Mackenzie Blackwood, goalie

The Devils unloaded a lot of salary at the deadline and with a new management team in place, they will continue with their rebuild.   They have plenty of cap space and could be one of the teams that tries to take advantage of their rivals’ cap troubles.

As one of the worst teams in the NHL this season, the Devils will continue to utilize their young prospects with only a handful of RFA’s needing salary bumps.  In goal, the Devils would be happy to unload Cory Schneider, but he has a No Trade Clause and would have to be protected in the Seattle expansion draft.  That’s a big problem since it means they would have to expose Mackenzie Blackwood who won the starting job.

The Rangers and the Devils don’t make deals with each other and the Michael Grabner deal was a downer for New Jersey so don’t look for any action here.

New York Islanders – Cap space $8,119,167

Key UFA’s:
Matt Martin , Left wing
Derick Brassard, Center
Tom Kuhnhackl,  Right wing
Andy Greene, Left defense
Thomas Greiss, Goalie

Key RFA’s:
Matt Barzal, Center
Ryan Pulock, Right defense (arbitration eligible)
Devon Toews, Left defense

The Islanders’ postseason focus can be narrowed down to two words. Matt Barzal.  He’s the most important player on this team and needs to get paid.  He’s not arbitration eligible, but he’s a prime candidate for an offer sheet.

The Islanders UFA’s are all expendable and Matt Martin won’t take much to retain, but half of their current defense are free agents.  Ryan Pulock is  coming off a breakout season and is arbitration eligible and will be looking for an increase over his $2 million salary.

The Islanders are another team that the Rangers don’t trade with. Except for one minor deal in 2010, the last deal involving an NHL player between the teams was in 1972 when the Blueshirts sent Ron Stewart to the Island for cash.   When it comes to free agents, lefthanded blueliner Andy Greene is a character player, but will be 38 years old and made $5 million this year.  If he is willing to take a cheap deal for a year to stay in the area, he could be a depth option for the Rangers, but probably not.

Philadelphia Flyers – Cap space $8,976,310

Key UFA’s:
Nate Thompson, Center
Tyler Pitlick, Right wing
Derek Grant, Center-wing
Justin Braun, Right defense
Brian Elliott, Goalie

Key RFA’s:
Nolan Patrick, Center
Nicolas Aube-Kubel, Right wing (arbitration eligible)
Robert Hagg, Left defense (arbitration eligible)
Philippe Myers, Right defense

While the Flyers were a bit of a surprise, finishing with one of the best records in the NHL, they face some severe cap issues with three of their starting forwards UFA’s and  a third (Aube-Kubel) restricted and arbitration eligible.    Nolan Patrick will also be looking for a new contract as a RFA.  There will be a definite youth movement on Broad Street next season with six forwards accounting for over half of their cap hit.

The Flyers will begin to pay the price for committing big bucks to long term contracts (can you say Kevin Hayes?) starting next season.  They may get some relief if Oskar Lindblom cannot play, but he joined the team in the bubble and looks like he is ready to go.

Deals between the Rangers and Flyers are not unheard of (see Eric Lindros), but they are rare.  There is no deal that screams out to be done between the two teams.

Pittsburgh Penguins – Cap space $13,224,825

Key UFA’s:
Conor Sheary, Left wing
Patrick Marleau, Left wing-center
Justin Schultz, Right defense

Key RFA’s:
Matt Murray, Goalie (arbitration eligible)
Tristan Jarry, Goalie (arbitration eligible)
Jared McCann, Left wing (arbitration eligible)
Evan Rodrigues, Center (arbitration eligible)
Anthony Angello, Center (arbitration eligible)
Sam Lafferty, Center-wing (arbitration eligible)
Dominik Simon, Winger (arbitration eligible)
Jusso Riikola, Defense (arbitration eligible)

Penguins General Manager Jim Rutherford didn’t mince words after the Penguins were eliminated from the Stanley Cup Playoffs.  Clearly dissatisfied, he made it clear that changes were in the offing, but with their cap situation, it won’t be easy.  They have over $68 million committed to 15 players and have eight arbitration eligible RFA’s including their two goalies, Matt Murray and Tristan Jarry.

The Penguins will have no interest in keeping their three UFA’s, but none of them are of interest to the Rangers.  They can play hardball with most of their RFA’s as none of them were key personnel.  The big decision for Rutherford is who the main goalie will be. Matt Murray is one year away from UFA status and had an awful year, but you cannot overlook his past contributions.   If they decide that Jarry is their future, you could see them make a sincere effort to deal Murray.

Other contracts they would love to unload include defenseman Jack Johnson and forward Patric Hornqvist.   One player that would pique the Rangers’ interest is Zach Aston-Reese.  He’s a physical forward making $1 million a year and is a Staten Island native.  He is signed through next season after which he is an arbitration eligible RFA.

The Rangers will have no interest in “helping” the Penguins out of their problem and in fact, would see an aging Pittsburgh team as one that they could pass in their bid to make the playoffs next season.

Washington Capitals – Cap space $10,394,872

Key UFA’s:
Ilya Kovalchuk, Left wing
Radko Gudas, Right defense
Brenden Dillon, Left defense
Braden Holtby, Goalie

Key RFA’s:
Travis Boyd, Center (arbitration eligible)
Jonas Siegenthaler, Left defense
Daniel Sprong, Right wing (arbitration eligible)
Brian Pinho, Center (arbitration eligible)

The big question for the Capitals, who look to be on the verge of a first round Stanley Cup Playoffs elimination, is in goal.  They have their goalie of the future in Ilya Samsanov, but have Braden Holtby hitting UFA status.  Although Holtby has started in this postseason, it looks like his days as a Capital are over.

There’s no doubt that Washington will conduct a self examination of they lose this round, but like every team in the Met Division, they will be hamstrung by the flat cap. As much as they’d like to renew their RFA’s if they  are forced to choose between re-signing Brenden Dillon or qualifying Jonas Siegenthler, they might choose Dillon.

In other posts, we’ve discussed that Dillon would be a great addition to the Rangers’ blueline, but he is currently playing top minutes for the Capitals.  Radko Gudas is available and the designated Micheal Haley slot will be open on the Blueshirts, but there’s a lot not to like about Gudas. He would make the Rangers a tougher team to play against.

At any rate, the Capitals will be an interesting story this post season as will every team in the Division.

Recapping the Met

Every team in the Metropolitan Division except the New Jersey Devils is facing a tough cap situation this off-season. That’s testimony to how tough the Division is and how much of a challenge it will be for the Rangers to move in a playoff spot.  The good news for New York is they have more cap flexibility than all six of their playoff rivals.

Trades within the Division are rare and it’s doubtful we will see one.  There are some free agent options for the Rangers that may be attractive as much for hurting the competition as adding talent.

It will be a good time to see exactly how creative Metropolitan Division general managers can be.  With three of the last four Stanley Cups, they’ve proven that they can be very creative.