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The truth about the New York Rangers salary cap situation

By Jason Katinas

VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA - JUNE 21: (L-R) John Davidson and Jeff Gorton of the New York Rangers attends the 2019 NHL Draft at the Rogers Arena on June 21, 2019 in Vancouver, Canada. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)
VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA - JUNE 21: (L-R) John Davidson and Jeff Gorton of the New York Rangers attends the 2019 NHL Draft at the Rogers Arena on June 21, 2019 in Vancouver, Canada. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images) /
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Henrik Lundqvist and Marc Staal formally of the New York Rangers (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images) /

The New York Rangers are still in a salary cap crunch

The New York Rangers are in a complicated salary cap situation. The team has a little over $23 million in cap space available for the 2020-21 season. This looks plentiful on the surface and in comparison to the remainder of the teams in the NHL. But a deeper look, with the help of the capfriendly.com shows that the Blueshirts are not quite out of salary cap woods just yet.

General Manager Jeff Gorton certainly has the Rangers moving in the right direction in terms of cap space. Over the last week Gorton has made two cap saving transactions. First on September 27, long time Rangers defenseman Marc Staal was traded to the Detroit Red Wings saving $5.7 million in cap. The trade also sent the Red Wings a 2nd round pick in return for future considerations.

On September 30, the New York Rangers bought out future Hall of Famer Henrik Lundqvist. The transaction saves the team three million in cap this season while adding $5.5 million and $1.5 million in dead cap over the next two seasons respectively. In all the two transactions added $8.7 million in cap space, increasing the team total from $14,391,867 to $23,901,867.

Comparatively, the Rangers are now among a group of seven NHL teams currently below the salary cap lower limit of $60.2 million. Additionally, there are now only four NHL teams with more available cap space than the New York Rangers. So, what makes this situation complicated? The Rangers have only 13 players under contract at the NHL level and will need to sign or promote nine players, including five forwards, three defensemen and one goaltender, to ice a full NHL roster.

The Rangers have several restricted free agents (RFA) and many players on entry level contracts (ELC),  with more due after the NHL entry draft on October 6th. Be it terms of contract or performance bonuses, each of these roster options brings with them salary cap ramifications.

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