While the Rangers spend the next five days working in practice to try and find the form they displayed when going 9-1-1, two news items that impact the team came out Monday. First is the start date for the Seattle franchise, who are expected to officially become the NHL’s 32nd team today. Second is the potential rise in the cap from $79.5 million this season. I have covered the Seattle impact below and hope to get to the cap impact later today.
Seattle:
No one will confirm on record...that will happen tomorrow, but Seattle is expected to begin play in 2021.
— Darren Dreger (@DarrenDreger) December 4, 2018
Seattle joining the league was pretty much a fait accompli. The only question is what would be their first season, impacting when we would have the next explanation draft. Originally, 2019-20 had been proposed, but all signs point to Seattle inaugural campaign occurring the following season. Pushing back their start date has a material impact on the Rangers and league as a whole.
Hockey Stat Miner on Twitter has been all over the expansion draft for a while. His initial focus was on 2020-21 but he posted his take on who would be protected as of now for 2021-22. The list is pretty easy to determine:
5F/3D/1G [2x F protected spots unused] F: Zibanejad, Buchnevich (RFA?), Chytil, Andersson, Howden D: Skjei, Pionk(RFA?), DeAngelo(RFA?) G: Georgiev(RFA?) Outgoing UFAs: Henrik Lundqvist, Jesper Fast, Chris Kreider, Ryan Strome, Kevin Shattenkirk, Brendan Smith and Marc Staal.
The move from 2020-21 has positive and adverse impacts. On the positive, several players that would have had to be protected or resulted in very difficult decisions now will be unrestricted free agents. That outgoing UFA list includes Lundqvist as well as Shattenkirk, Staal and Smith. It’s possible that none of those three defensemen would be a Ranger by then, but if they do somehow fulfill their contracts, each one no longer impacts the retention list. If New York does move one of them, if a player is brought in, the possibility exists that he would need to be protected, but impossible to know that now.
On the flip side, because Andersson and Chytil played more than 10 games this season and their ELC can’t slide, each one will be through year three at the end of the 2020-21 season and will now need to be protected. The same can be said for Brett Howden. Those three eat up 3/7 of the available spots. Mika Zibanejad is signed for the 2021-22 season, so he will be protected, and we all expected Pavel Buchnevich to be a Ranger at that time. The only question is will he have just competed a two year bridge deal or be on a longer term contract. This list doesn’t include either Artemi Panarin or Mark Stone, one of whom could be signed by New York after this season. In addition, the above presumes that Kevin Hayes and/or Jimmy Vesey have not been re-sighed by New York and are therefore no longer part of the organization. Similar for Mats Zuccarello and Vladislav Namestnikov. If any are brought back, the impact is fairly apparent.
On the blueline, Shattenkirk, Smith and Staal all will not need to be protected. Skjei remaining on that list may very well be determined by how well he plays over the next two-plus years, despite his long-term contract. Pionk and DeAngelo both are probable to be Rangers at that time, but if putting odds, my bet is on Pionk before ADA. Don’t rule out Fredrik Claesson signing for a few years, of New York can get him on a reasonable deal. If that happens, Claesson is a possibility to be protected, but I could very easily see him as one of the veterans exposed in line with the expansion rules.
Between the pipes, Lundqvist’s eight-year deal expires, leaving Alexandar Georgiev as the protected goalie. If Igor Shesterkin is in the US then, he will not need to be on the protected list. The same for Adam Huska, if he is signed to an ELC. I wouldn’t be shocked if someone like Dustin Tokarski is signed to a cheap deal so he can be the exposed goalie allowing New York to be in compliance with the expansion rules.